Criticism Of One-Sided Foreign Policy Continues In Iran
Amid its most serious internal crisis in 40 years, the Islamic Republic is now facing daily criticism of its foreign policy, even in its government-controlled media.
Amid its most serious internal crisis in 40 years, the Islamic Republic is now facing daily criticism of its foreign policy, even in its government-controlled media.
Multiple pundits and politicians are questioning a one-sided foreign policy in favor of China and Russia and calling for balance and a resumption of the suspended nuclear talks with the West. They have also unleashed tough criticism against foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, saying that he is not capable of steering the country’s foreign relations.
The attacks began after he attended a regional summit in Jordan, where he met the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, expressing Tehran’s readiness to resume nuclear talks. No tangible results emerged from the trip.
Expediency Council member Mohammad Sadr, has harshly criticized Iran's dependency on Russia and China in an interview with the centrist Entekhab News, charging that the two countries are not Iran's strategic allies, but they solely follow their own interests. He further criticized the foreign minister and the President Ebrahim Raisi for failing to give a proper response to China putting its signature on a statement with the Gulf Cooperation Council states that questioned Iran's ownership of three Persian Gulf islands.
In the reality of the Islamic Republic, everyone knows that these decisions are made in the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not at the foreign ministry or by the president.
Earlier last week, others including academic and foreign relations expert Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh also attacked Iran's ideological foreign policy and the performance of the Foreign Ministry, while former diplomat Ahmad Azizi called on Khamenei's office to take over the responsibilities of the Foreign Ministry.
Sadr also criticized Iran's policy regarding relations with Saudi Arabia, adding that Riyadh is waiting for US Republicans to win the presidency, before revealing its real intentions toward Iran. Sadr called for a realistic foreign policy that would prioritize the country's national interests. Iran, he said, should maintain relations with all countries except Israel, and seek to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA.
An expert on international relations Mehdi Motaharnia told Fararu website in Tehran that if Iran continues its current foreign policy of aligning with China and Russia and considering itself an enemy of the United States and Europe, it will have no third option soon vis-à-vis the EU-US-Israeli alliance and the new alliance between Arab countries and Israel. He warned that China and Russia have also let Tehran down.
Fararu observed that the biggest political upheaval of the country in the past 43 years has paralyzed the government and asked Motaharnia if there was a third way out for Iran.
Motaharnia responded that Iran's tilt towards the Russia and China has left nothing of its initial non-alignment policy. As a result, whatever is against the West finds legitimacy. This inevitably brings about an identity crisis for the political system.
He added that Tehran not only needs to redefine its relations with the West, but it also needs to reform its internal governance. Motaharnia said that this will determine international community's approach to Iran in coming months.
Meanwhile, as some of Iran's hardliners such as the editor of Kayhan newspaper have harshly attacked Amir Abdollahian's attempts to resume talks with the West, former diplomat Fereidouin Majles has said in an interview with moderate Roiuyda24 website that the approach of some of Raisi's supporters will lead to Iran's further isolation. Majlesi said ironically that while everybody wants to determine the fate of the JCPOA in his own way, let us shut down the Foreign Ministry and let the Tehran Municipality to regulate Iran's relations with the rest of the world. Majlesi charged that the Foreign Ministry's critics have no concern about Iran's interests.
The debate began following Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri's reportedly unsuccessful meeting with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Amman.
Iranian academic Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh said in an interview with Didban Iranwebsite that "Iran's foreign policy is bankrupt." He charged that Iran's diplomats are not well experienced and well trained, adding that Tehran's foreign policy is ideological. He also charged that IRGC generals are the wrong people in the foreign relations arena.
Elsewhere in the interview Mojtahedzadeh argued that the foreign ministry should have a technical rather than ideological approach to foreign policy, adding that Iran needs skilled diplomats who can at least speak English. He said Iranian diplomats should confront their international counterparts, even US diplomats based on the country's national interests rather than any ideology.
Meanwhile, criticizing Tehran's foreign policy priorities which is evident from its attempts to get closer to Moscow and Beijing. He lashed out at China for "its double-standards in the region" and said "Russia will also let us down."
Career diplomats such as Ahmad Azizi have also expressed disappointment over the performance of the foreign minister and his team. Azizi, a former deputy foreign minister, ambassador to Germany and the broker of the deal with the United States over releasing US diplomats who were taken hostage in Iran following the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, wrote in a letter to Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Khamenei's Foreign Relations Council that "The foreign minister cannot do anything. Please think of a solution yourself."
Azizi said in the letter that "the chronic and painful crisis of sanctions needs an urgent solution." Meanwhile, he stressed: "The problem is that we have never thought of any problem as a crisis!" He reiterated that solving many of Iran's problems,” including the current economic pressure on the people, “depend on tackling the crisis of sanctions."
According to the letter, published as an op-ed in the reformist daily Etemad, "The routes to decision making in Iran are closed in the Iranian political system which is facing a catalogue of crises. "
As a result of these crises, Iranians' shopping baskets have become increasingly smaller while there is no solution in sight for the problems of industries and entrepreneurship including rising unemployment figures and the government's indecision about the future of the young generation.
The biggest hurdle is opposition by Iran's hardliners to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal based on their ideological, anti-US stance. On Thursday, Hossein Shariatmadari the editor of Khamenei-funded ultraconservative Kayhan newspaper lashed out at Iranian negotiators and diplomats for expressing readiness for a deal with the West during the meeting in Amman.
He wrote: "Why did you say you were ready for negotiations over the JCPOA while Europe and the United States are insisting on their support for Iranian rioters [protesters]?" Other Iranian media including Didban have said that Shariatmadari's opposition to renewed negotiations reveals that a key part of the Iranian government opposes the revival of the talks.
Shariatmadari's connection to Khamenei, once again point fingers at the Supreme Leader as the main obstacle to a deal that could save ordinary Iranians from a long-standing financial misery.