> and don't forget the Sunni/Shia divide, where Iran will support Hezbollah because Shia, but wind up supporting Sunni Hamas because common cause against Jewish Israel usurping a piece of what was for a long period of time Islamdom.

Irans support for Hamas has from the beginning also (somewhat ironically, similar to Israel’s motives for fostering Hamas in the first place) as an Islamist counterweight to the PLO and its connection to pan-Arab nationalism.