Iran's key strategic location at one of the world's most important bottlenecks for energy trade — the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf — along with its enormous oil and gas reserves, its political ambitions, and its nuclear program, make it an important player in the Middle East.

For more than two weeks, the Shiite-majority country of 93 million people has seen mass nationwide protests that were initially sparked by economic grievances, but have since developed into an uprising against the regime in Tehran.

Officially, the authoritarian regime of the Islamic Republic...