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Iran, the Last of the Seven: Syria First, Then Iran

This page connects two stories that are usually told apart. One is the list of wars: the seven countries a Pentagon memo named after 9/11, ending with Iran. The other is Greater Israel: the expansion of Israel's borders into its neighbors. The link between them is the order in which things happened. The countries that stood between Israel and a larger map were knocked down one by one, and Iran, the power behind the last of them, is being hit now.

The list​

In a 2007 interview General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, said that weeks after 9/11 a Pentagon officer showed him a memo describing how the United States would "take out seven countries in five years": Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. Posts in 2025 and 2026 keep returning to that list:

  • "'Seven Countries In Five Years.' General Wesley Clark Reveals... Plan To Invade Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan And Iran" (WarNuse on X, 13 June 2025), posted the day after Israel's June 2025 strikes on Iran began.
  • "Iran is the last of what's known as the WesleyClark 7... all of which have now already happened, besides Iran. Their plan was to have America defeat Israel's adversaries... so they can expand Israel's borders in the 'Greater Israel' project for regional dominance" (post, 21 June 2025).
  • "7 countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and final country they wanted to topple the regime in Iran to expand Israel's territory borders" (Jay Rhodes on X, 14 August 2026).

The economist Jeffrey Sachs, speaking to Tucker Carlson, tied the list to Israel directly: it "goes back to right after 9/11, when 'the neocons and the Israelis' decided they were going to launch wars in seven countries to remake the Middle East. 'We've been at war in six of them now. And I mean the United States, on behalf of Israel, including in Syria.'" He called it "all part of the 'greater Israel' idea" (as rendered in an article shared on X, 22 March 2025). The full history of the list is in Pentagon plan: the list of wars and The seven-country scorecard.

The documents behind it​

  • 1982, Yinon: break up Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon along ethnic and religious lines.
  • 1996, "A Clean Break," written for Netanyahu: remove Saddam Hussein, roll back Syria, strike Syrian and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, with Iran named as a threat.
  • 2000, PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" and related letters: Iraq regime change, with Iran, Syria, and Libya listed among hostile regimes.

As one summary put it, "Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are the main overlaps" between these documents and the Greater Israel map, and "Iran is named in the memos but falls outside standard Greater Israel maps" (Grok on X, 23 September 2026). That is the point: the memos treat Iran as the enemy to be removed, and the maps treat the land between as the prize.

"Focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran"​

The clearest statement of the sequence comes from an Israeli outlet. Channel 14's English account, 2 October 2024: "given that Iran shares no border with Israel and is not a hindrance to the establishment of Greater Israel, Israel should focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran" (C14 News English on X). Two months later Syria fell. Eight months after that came the first war on Iran.

The order of events​

DateEvent
2003United States invades Iraq (first on the list)
2006Israel's war on Lebanon
2011NATO campaign in Libya; war begins in Syria
Oct 2024Israel invades southern Lebanon; Channel 14: "focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran"
8 Dec 2024Assad falls; Israel takes Mount Hermon and the Syrian buffer zone
13 Jun 2025Israel attacks Iran; the United States strikes Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan on 22 June
12 Aug 2025Netanyahu says he connects "very much" to Greater Israel
28 Feb 2026The United States and Israel launch a larger war on Iran
Mar 2026Israel takes southern Lebanon to the Litani; Smotrich: "the new Israeli border must be the Litani"
Sep 2026Katz: Golan and Hermon are Israel's "forever"

Who says Iran is the obstacle​

  • A writer on Threads, January 2026: "As long as Iran exists in the Middle East, Israel's Greater Israel map can never be implemented" (Threads, 15 January 2026).
  • A claimed official Chinese statement in March 2026: "The aggression targeting Iran is a calculated move to implement the 'Greater Israel' project," with Iran's resistance "the last barrier" (Iran Mil Updates on X, 13 March 2026; no Chinese government link was found for this page).
  • Iran's deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, April 2026: "The Israeli regime wanted to have the Greater Israel project and change the geopolitics of the region. This defense by Iran is being done on behalf of the entire region" (post, 18 April 2026, video).
  • John Mearsheimer, as summarized from a 2026 talk: Israel plans to "systematically destroy major regional powers like Syria, Lebanon, Iran & eventually weaken Turkey" (post, 3 April 2026, video).
  • Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant Treasury secretary: "most wars in the Middle East in the 21st century are fundamentally linked to this concept of 'Greater Israel'" (Middle East Monitor, 28 April 2026).

After Iran​

The list does not seem to end with Iran. Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy said "after Iran, Israel's next target is Türkiye" (Afshin Rattansi on X, 7 May 2026). Jonathan Pollard, the former spy now living in Israel, urged Israel to prepare for war with Turkey and Egypt after Iran (Sahat English on X, 4 June 2026; CombatMilitaryNews on X, 18 September 2026).

Evidence rating: STRONG that the post-9/11 list of wars and the Greater Israel project run on the same track, with Iran as the last obstacle, as shown by the documents, an Israeli outlet's stated sequence, and the order of events.

Status: Wesley Clark, Jeffrey Sachs, Saeed Khatibzadeh, John Mearsheimer, Paul Craig Roberts, Daniel Levy, Jonathan Pollard, and Benjamin Netanyahu are alive.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t28__v325.md, twitter/t28__v328.md, twitter/t28__v330.md, twitter/t28__v331.md, twitter/t28__v334.md, twitter/t27__v319.md, twitter/t23__v274.md, twitter/t23__v276.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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