​The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies organized an academic lecture entitled “Revolutionary Iran One Year After the Arab Revolutions: Notes on Iran's Foreign Policy and its Ramifications”, by Dr Mahjoob Zweiri, Head of the School of Humanities at Qatar University on February 6, 2012.

Dr. Zweiri began his discussion with the remark that the reaction of Iran to the Arab revolutions "was probably one of the most important questions facing the Arabs today". Dr Zweiri then went on to ask the question, "Did Iran's foreign policy change with the Arab revolutions?" To which the answer was a firm yes; Iranian decision-makers and the country's cultural and political elite, he went on to suggest, were very much caught off-guard by the revolutions sweeping through the Arab countries.

Zweiri further went on to describe in detail how the attitudes of the Iranian public and also the country's political decision-makers towards the Arab revolutions varied from country to country. He gave special mention to the large degree of attention paid by Iranians to the revolution a country which, despite it not having normal diplomatic relations with Iran for nearly 30 years, was felt by many Iranians to have a close affinity with their own country, and a fellow host of a great civilization. As such, they were both keenly interested in Egyptian affairs and buoyed by the revolution there.