Globally, Iran and Russia both play a progressive role in undermining the era of imperialism, while the US Empire and Israel play a reactionary role in perpetuating and benefiting from the era of imperialism. That can be a tough pill to swallow if you’ve never really looked into imperialism as a special stage in capitalism, but with that understanding any generic demonization levied against flawed states that ultimately play a progressive global role only serves to benefit the reactionary states.