17 - 23 May 2001
Issue No.534
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 17 - 23 May 2001 Issue No.534 |
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God or Mammon?
Iran's reformist candidates are urging a new foreign policy based on economic need, not Islamic unity. Azadeh Moaveni talks regional politics with some of the contenders in the presidential race
President Muhammad Khatami will not go down in Iranian history as a brilliant domestic politician. But the success of his foreign policy has been considered inside and outside Iran as the one tangible achievement of his first four years as President. Detente, dialogue of civilisations, and a host of other clever approaches have aimed to rehabilitate Iran's reputation in the West and soothe its troubled regional ties.
But, surprisingly, the two most prominent contenders in the reform camp are centering their platforms around an attack on Khatami's foreign policy. Their challenge, though, is likely to be stopped by a rejection of their candidature by the Guardian Council, a clerical vetting body that is due to announce its short-list of candidates this week. But even if their campaigns are stalled before take-off, they signal a significant, emerging critique of Khatami's foreign policy from within his own political movement.
Economic utility should guide which nations Iran invests its diplomatic energy in, argues Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, a Tehran city council member who is the only high-profile reformism candidate, apart from the president himself, to join the presidential race. "We should be trying to dialogue with dynamic civilisations, not dead ones," he said in an interview. Asgharzadeh was pointing to a key Khatami foreign policy tool, the United Nations-sponsored dialogue of civilisations that has served as a cultural pretext for building political ties between countries whose relations are still too sensitive for direct diplomacy. Asgharzadeh believes Iran has been too occupied with its Arab neighbours and other OPEC countries, and should instead focus on building ties with nations that can serve as more useful economic partners. Economic interest should dictate foreign policy. "We shouldn't be building relationships out of inclination," Asgharzadeh said, in an oblique reference to Khatami's personal commitment to establishing a special rapport with other Islamic states.
National interest and geopolitical considerations should premise Iran's policy more than they do currently, according to Mohammed Mohsen Sazgara, a pro-reform candidate with revolutionary credentials who is popular among students. He believes Iran should take a neutral stand on the Middle East peace process and cut all financial and political support for militant groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanese Hizbullah. "We should allow the peace process to proceed, because a lasting peace means opposing extremism in all camps," Sazgara said. As much as Khatami's foreign policy is feted for reintegrating Iran into the neighborhood, relations with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey are still strained.
Both Asgharzadeh and Sazgara support ties with the US, but limit their critical evaluation of Khatami's foreign policy record to areas where the President had the freedom to make policy. Neither candidate may end up on the presidential ballot, but that former revolutionaries and modern-day Islamic reformists are calling for an end to ideological foreign policy marks an important evolution in the debate over Iran's role in the world.
Leading conservatives like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei still cling to the notion that Iran must take the lead in liberating Jerusalem. In comparison, President Khatami's emphasis on political kinship between Islamic states seems moderate. But with reformists broadly calling for rational considerations to rule the day, even Khatami's foreign policy priorities are beginning to look like old revolutionary ideas in updated packaging. Perhaps most importantly of all, these two candidates are airing alternative views that have the possibility of becoming mainstream.
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