Writing about Iran´s Foreign Policy

 

Iran´s Foreign Policy. From Khatami to Ahmadinejad a collection of articles edited by Anourshiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri is an useful read for someone interested to know a little bit about the diplomatic endeavours of the Islamic Republic. The articles are written about academics, current and former diplomats, political appointees and cover from very general aspects related to the foreign policy theories applied to the case of Iran to the relationships between Iran on one side, and European countries, US and UK, on the other side. It also includes various details about the relationship between Iran and Iraq, as well as the neighbouring countries and the Gulf countries.

The generous insights shared by some people with years of direct contact with the Iranian realities. However, diplomatically, there are so many very important aspects that are willingly or not omitted from those otherwise very interesting articles. 

For instance, what are the decision making mechanisms in matters of foreign policy. At what extent the Foreign Ministry has the capacity of taking decisions in this respect, and if yes, what kind of decisions and if not, what other institutions are involved in the process and at what extent. Also, when it comes to the nomination of diplomats, is the Foreign Ministry the only institution with attributions in this respect? 

Also, what exactly is the diplomatic program of Iran? How does Russia - and China - outplay their interests in Iran and how does this connect with other international players interested in engaging, such as Arab countries and European countries?

The situation of the human rights is tangentially mentioned in some of the articles but not as a serious impediment in pursuing the foreign policy goals but the situation of dual citizens imprisoned under various accusations is for a long time a matter of distrust in bilateral relations. 

I would have expected more applied analysis of the Iranian revolutionary export abroad, not only in Iraq - which is extensively covered - and Lebanon - less than it deserves but also, for instance, in Africa, or Syria, or Yemen. 

Last but not least, the Iran-UK relations are analysed and commented by two experienced diplomats. However, for obvious politeness reasons, the situation of the debt owed by UK to Iran which is a serious element of wariness in the bilateral relations is absent from the otherwise interesting evaluations.

Overall the book is useful, but would give to many of the articles for various non-diplomatic reasons with the benefit of the doubt. The take is ambitious but it delivers much less that it promises. Still, it is better than nothing and given that Iran will probably keep the first page of the news for a lot of reasons in the next months, it´s good to dedicate some time to this edited volume. 

Behind the Diplomatic Battle for the Iran Deal

Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumpf of Diplomacy by Trita Parsi is a detailed, step-by-step account of the heated debates for closing the Iran deal. Parsi, one of the founder and former president of the American-Iranian Council, is a frequent editorialist and commenter on issues pertaining to diplomatic developments in the Middle East, particularly Iran.

For someone interested to read more about the diplomatic steps and proceedings leading to the conclusion of this unique agreement, between two countries whose diplomatic relations were frozen for decades, the book is an useful read. How Obama succeeded to dupe his European partners while working hard to achieve the deal through mysterious ways, including by using a very secret Oman channel, is, among others, an important element to understand the post-Cold War diplomatic games. 

The author´s appreciation for the Iranian top diplomat, Javad Sharif, is clear and compared to a certain part of the local Iranian elites, he certainly may deserve the praise. On the other hand, Sharif himself acknowledged recently in the Iranian Parliament, on an exasperating tone, how much he and his ´diplomats´ worked together to achieve political and ´revolutionary´ aims endeavoured by the militant side of the regime, including the late Qasem Soleimani. In a plain translation, diplomatic positions and outposts of Iran were used for undiplomatic aims, such as planning terror attacks or fuelling Hizbollah and its proxies. Candidly, in the book, Parsi mentions Hizbullah, which is funded regularly with money and ideology by the regime in Tehran, as ´a close ally of Iran´. For an academic approach, I would have expected a critical approach on Sharif and its interesting diplomatic game.

Also a critical stance is missing when it comes to Israel. Clearly, during the negotiations, the long-term prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a hawkish opposer of it, and a supporter of military strikes against Iran, despite the clear opposition of the Israeli intelligence and military establishment. But not all that glitters is gold and taking ad litteram Netanyahu´s declarations and accusing him and the ´lobby´ - that is not called throughoutly this but described in clear terms as one - does not bring any contribution to understanding the complexity of the problem. Blaming Netanyahu and the pro-Israeli voices for  the mishaps of an international system is wrong. Some people simply deserve each other.

As I had the book in audio format, a sidenote is for the pronunciation of non-English words: from Madrid to Persian and Hebrew names, the results are horrendous. Like the content of the book was not deceiving enough. 

Rating: 2 stars