Re: Uh, depends on what you mean by powerful....
Iran is Shia and is not behind el Queda or other Sunni-based terror groups. But they are a huge source of the problems in the ME. Invading Iraq was supposed to plant democracy in the ME. We had it won but Pres zer0 pulled out all troops and allowed it to collapse. If he had maintained a democratic Iraq and helped the people of Iran overthrow the mad mullahs in 2009 when they started a revolution, the whole world would be a much better place.
A western-friendly democratic Iraq and Iran would have been huge. Assad could not have survived without Iran's help. Hezbollah and Hamas would be seriously weakened,Yemen as stable as zer0 claimed, less trouble in many places. Thanks for nuttin zer0
As to the OP, its very hard to say at this point who is the baddest dude. Turkey is very powerful as is Egypt. Iran has been weakened by sanctions and the oil price crash but has great influence in several countries. Saudis have a strong air force but small ground troops, I think. The Kurds are great fighters but very under armed. Kurds could be big winners as they could take territory from Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey and have a formidable force But Turkey, which has been in a state of war with Kurdish forces for 40 yrs, would fight hard to prevent that from coming about.