In today’s world, there are 193 countries in the UN. The large majority of those countries will vote consistently against the United States on measures that come before the General Assembly.

Then again, the international system that counts is not the UN, but rather the U.S.-led commercial and legal order of alliances and trade. Almost all of the 193 UN member countries participate willingly in that system, to their great benefit. They may oppose the U.S. on many issues, and they may have disputes with their immediate neighbors, but they don’t make themselves constant troublemakers threatening to disrupt world peace and international trade.

And then there is that small number of countries that are engaged in some kind of continuous arms-supported opposition to the dominant U.S.-led order. Out of the 193 countries in the UN, recently that group has consisted of a cohort of six: China and Russia as the big two, plus the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Each of these countries has taken its own approach to trying to resist and disrupt the U.S.-led international order.

But even among this group of rogue states, Iran has long stood out as the one state actor that engages in frequent and lethal armed attacks against other countries that are not at war with it and have not attacked it.