Foreign relations of Iran

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For current international events related to Iran see Current international disputes with Iran

Foreign relations of
Iran

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[edit] Introduction

Darvazeh-e-Bagh-e-Melli: The main gates to Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.
Darvazeh-e-Bagh-e-Melli: The main gates to Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.
The newly renovated building of Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses pre-Islamic Persian architecture extensively in its facade.
The newly renovated building of Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses pre-Islamic Persian architecture extensively in its facade.

Since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini's regime initiated sharp changes from the foreign policy pursued by the Shah, particularly in reversing the country's orientation toward the West. Following Iran's initial post-revolutionary idealistic and hard-line foreign policy and the Iran-Iraq war, the country has begun to settle down into a more rational foreign policy. However, this is still occasionally overshadowed by rhetoric.

In recent years Iran has made great strides in improving relations with its neighbours, particularly Saudi Arabia. Iran's regional goals are trying not to be dominated by wanting to establish a leadership role, curtail the presence of the United States and other outside powers, and build trade ties. In broad terms, Iran's foreign policy emphasizes three main guidelines:

  • It takes stances against the United States and Israel, the former as a military power that threatens it in the Persian Gulf, and the latter as part of its stance to support the Palestinians. See U.S.-Iran relations.
  • It wants to eliminate outside influence in the region. Iran sees itself as a regional power, when global powers such as the United States or the United Kingdom do not supersede it. It seeks to reduce their presence in the Persian Gulf wherever possible.
  • It pursues a great increase in diplomatic contacts with developing and non-aligned countries, as part of an effort to build trade and political support, now that it has lost its pre-revolutionary US backing.

Despite these guidelines, however, bilateral relations are frequently confused and contradictory, due to Iran's oscillation between pragmatic and ideological concerns.

[edit] History

[edit] Post Revolution Period (1979-1980)

The country's foreign relations since the revolution have been tumultuous. A number of varying factors account for this; the most important among them is Iran's significant anti-western backlash after its revolution (The roots of this were in the west's support for the Shah).

At this time, Iran found itself very isolated, due to its hardline and aggressive Islamic foreign policy, which wanted to see its revolutionary ideals spread across the Persian Gulf. This resulted in confrontation with the U.S. in the hostage crisis.

[edit] Iran-Iraq War Period (1980-1988)

Iranian attempts to spread its Islamic revolution also strained the country's relations with many of its Arab neighbors. In 1981, Iran supported a plot to overthrow the Bahraini government. In 1983, Iran expressed political support for Shi'ites who bombed Western embassies in Kuwait, and in 1987, Iranian pilgrims rioted at poor living conditions and treatment and were consequently massacred during the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nations with strong fundamentalist movements, such as Egypt and Algeria, also began to mistrust Iran. With the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Iran was thought to be supporting the creation of the Hizballah organization. Furthermore, Iran went on to oppose the Arab-Israeli peace process, because it saw Israel as an illegal country.

Iran also concerned European nations, particularly France and Germany, after its secret service executed several radical Iranian dissidents in Europe.

Relations with Iraq had never been good historically; however, they took a turn for the worse in 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran. The stated reason for Iraq's invasion was centered around sovereignty over the waterway between the two countries, the Arvandrud (Shatt al-Arab). However, other non-stated reasons are probably more convincing. Iran and Iraq had a history of interference in each other's affairs by supporting separatist movements. Although these interferences had stopped since the Algiers Agreement (1975), Iran resumed support for Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq after the Revolution.

Iran demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Iranian territory and the return to the status quo ante for the Arvandrud, as established under the 1975 Algiers Agreement signed by Iraq and Iran. This period saw Iran become even more isolated—with virtually no allies. Exhausted by the war, Iran signed UN Security Council Resolution 598 in July 1988 after the United States and Germany began supplying Iraq with chemical weapons. The cease-fire, resulting from the UN Resolution, was implemented on August 20, 1988. Neither nation had made any real gains in the war. It left one million dead (including about 700,000 Iranians) and had a dramatic effect on the country's foreign policy. From this point on, the until-then-radical Islamist government recognised that it had no choice but to moderate and rationalise its objectives. This was the beginning of what Anoushiravan Ehteshami calls the reorientation phase of Iranian foreign policy

[edit] Post War Period (1988-present)

Since the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iran's new foreign policy (see Introduction) has had a dramatic effect on its global standing. Relations with the European Union have dramatically improved to the point where Iran is a major oil exporter and trading partner for countries such as Italy, France, and Germany. China and India have also emerged as friends of Iran. Together, these three countries face similar challenges in the global economy as they industrialize and consequently find themselves aligned on a number of issues.

Iran maintains regular diplomatic and commercial relations with Russia and the former Soviet Republics. Both Iran and Russia believe they have important national interests at stake in developments in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus, particularly on energy resources from the Caspian Sea. Russian and other sales of military equipment and technology concern Iran's neighbors and the United States.

[edit] Significant historical treaties

[edit] Current policies of The Islamic Republic of Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran accords priority to its relations with the other states in the region and with the rest of the Islamic world. This includes a strong commitment to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement. Relations with the states of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), especially with Saudi Arabia, have improved in recent years. However, an unresolved territorial dispute with the United Arab Emirates concerning three islands in the Persian Gulf (see above) continues to mar its relations with these states.

Tehran supports the interim Governing Council in Iraq, but it strongly advocates a prompt and full transfer of state authority to the Iraqi people. Iran hopes for stabilization in Afghanistan and supports the reconstruction effort so that the Afghan refugees in Iran (which number approximately 2.5 million) can return to their homeland and the flow of drugs from Afghanistan can be stemmed. Iran is also pursuing a policy of stabilization and cooperation with the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, whereby it is seeking to capitalise on its central location to establish itself as the political and economic hub of the region.

[edit] Current disputes

  • Iran and Iraq restored diplomatic relations in 1990, but they are still trying to work out written agreements settling outstanding disputes from their eight-year war concerning border demarcation, prisoners-of-war, and freedom of navigation and sovereignty over the Arvand Rud waterway.
  • Iran governs and owns two islands in the Persian Gulf claimed by the UAE: Lesser Tunb (which the UAE calls Tunb as Sughra in Arabic, and Iran calls Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Kuchek in Persian) and Greater Tunb (which the UAE calls Tunb al Kubra in Arabic, and Iran calls Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Bozorg in Persian).
  • Iran jointly administers with the UAE an island in the Persian Gulf claimed by the UAE (Arabic, Abu Musa; Persian, Jazireh-ye Abu Musa), over which Iran has taken steps to exert unilateral control since 1992, including access restrictions.
  • The Caspian Sea borders are not yet determined with Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan, although this problem is set to be resolved peacefully in the coming years through slow negotiations. Issues between Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were settled in 2003, but Iran does not recognize these agreements, albeit it has no common border with Russia or Kazakhstan.
  • 2007 UK-Iran maritime capture controversy

[edit] Combatting the flow of illicit drugs

Despite substantial interdiction efforts, Iran remains a key transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin (primarily from neighboring Afghanistan) to Europe; domestic consumption of narcotics remains a persistent problem and Iranian press reports estimate that there are at least 1.2 million drug users in the country. Iran has been trying to increase the profile of its anti-drugs campaign abroad, but it is having little success. Most countries support it politically, but refuse Iran the critical equipment and training it needs.

[edit] Relations with the United States of America and the Member States of the European Union

Main article: U.S.-Iran relations

Relations between Iran and the United States have been disrupted since the revolution in Iran. Iran does not maintain diplomatic relations with either the United States or Israel, and it views the Middle East peace process with skepticism. Relations between Iran on the one hand and the European Union and its member states on the other hand are slowly but surely increasing in importance, a fact underscored by President Seyed Mohammad Khatami's visits to Italy, France and Germany in July 2000 and to Austria and Greece in March 2002, as well as by reciprocal visits of European heads of state and government to Tehran and a lively exchange at ministerial levels. In 2002, the European Union launched negotiations on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) with Iran. Parallel to these negotiations, the EU voiced its expectation that the political dialogue with Iran must lead to concrete results in the areas of human rights, efforts to counter terrorism, Iran’s stance on the Middle East peace process and issues associated with the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. During a joint visit to Tehran in October 2003, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom successfully prompted the Iranian government to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and commit itself to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and voluntarily suspend its uranium enrichment and processing activities.

[edit] Regional interference or influence?

Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy sums up this question best:

"A strong sense of history pervades Iran. Many Iranians consider their natural sphere of influence to extend beyond Iran's present borders. After all, Iran was once much larger. Portuguese forces seized islands and ports in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire wrested from Tehran's control what is today Armenia, Republic of Azerbaijan, and part of Georgia. Iranian elementary school texts teach about the Iranian roots not only of cities like Baku, but also cities further north like Derbent in southern Russia. The Shah lost much of his claim to western Afghanistan following the Anglo-Iranian war of 1856-1857. Only in 1970 did a UN sponsored consultation end Iranian claims to suzerainty over the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain. In centuries past, Iranian rule once stretched westward into modern Iraq and beyond. When the western world complains of Iranian interference beyond its borders, the Iranian government often convinced itself that it is merely exerting its influence in lands that were once its own. Simultaneously, Iran's losses at the hands of outside powers have contributed to a sense of grievance that continues to the present day."[1]

[edit] Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran is selected by the President of Iran. Manouchehr Mottaki is the current acting Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hamid Reza Assefi is the official spokesman.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave. 2005. Coauthored with Michael Rubin (historian). ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.9, 10

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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