A new season in Iran relations

by Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi (Boston Globe)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

POLITICS DOESN'T often imitate the changing season, but this may be an exception. Last week, when President Obama sent a Persian new year's greeting to Iran calling for "new beginnings" in relations between the two countries, it elicited an immediate response from Iran's highest authority, the spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who stated Iran's readiness to respond positively to Obama's offer of sincere engagement.

Sure, the Iranian leader's response was peppered with negative reactions to Obama's video message - to both the Iranian public and its leaders - linking Iran with terrorism and nuclear proliferation. But much of the Western media seriously misinterpreted Khamenei's response by saying that he had rebuffed, dismissed, or "brushed aside" Obama's important overture.

On the contrary, the instant response by the leader has been widely interpreted in Iran as a sign of respect for Obama. Khamenei challenged the president to back up words with action, adding "change only in words is not enough, change must be real." This means Khamenei has taken charge of Iran's US policy, preempting often-fractious voices in Iranian politics that could hamper evolution of a US-Iran dialogue.

As a sign of Iran's willingness to engage in the kind of regional dialogue on Afghanistan that Obama called for on Friday, Tehran has agreed to participate in three key conferences on Afghanistan. One began last week in Moscow. It focused on Afghanistan's instability and, above all, the burgeoning narcotics smuggling that bankrolls the Afghan insurgency and is, at the same time, a major headache for Iran, where most of the drugs are smuggled to Europe. There was a report Friday that NATO and Iran have held secret talks about Afghanistan.

There is a real convergence of interests between the United States and Iran on Afghanistan. Both oppose the Taliban and their Wahhabi Al Qaeda supporters, support the Kabul government, and fight the drug smugglers, who kill hundreds of Iran's drug officials each year. Iran has given generous economic assistance to Kabul and has contributed to Afghanistan's reconstruction by giving a 90 percent discount on duties for Afghan goods. Last year's trade between the countries approached $1 billion and this figure is anticipated to grow now that Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan have agreed to connect railways and ship water and electricity into Iran from Tajikistan via Afghanistan. There is already a well-built highway from Iran to Herat in western Afghanistan and plans are underway to connect the landlocked Afghanistan to the Iranian port of Chahbahar.

Given its geographical proximity and close historical, cultural, and linguistic ties with Afghanistan, Iran is well positioned to play an increasingly important role in Afghanistan's stabilization. However, Iran's leaders cannot forget how their post 9/11 cooperation with Washington to uproot the Taliban was rewarded by President Bush in the form of their demonization as part of an "axis of evil." So they are now adamant that their future cooperation will be part of a comprehensive and strategic context, whereby Iran is firmly included in regional stabilization strategies.

The dilemma for the United States is how to turn Iran into a partner without establishing diplomatic relations, which are currently stalemated over the nuclear standoff and conflicting views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The irony is that by renewing the US sanctions on Iran and seeking tougher UN sanctions, the Obama administration is actually trying to isolate and weaken Iran precisely at a time when a strong Iran can be a major pillar of stability in a volatile region. This is a recipe for failure. A more prudent US policy would be to consistently pursue confidence-building steps with Iran and to focus on Iran's nuclear transparency and improvement in its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, instead of trying to strip Iran of its much-cherished nuclear fuel cycle - which is fully monitored by the IAEA and its surveillance cameras.

A new season in US-Iran relations after 30 years of diplomatic alienation has dawned on the horizon. With the right mix of policies by both sides, the spell of hostility can be broken.

Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh is professor of political geography at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran and director of the Eurosevic Foundation in London. Kaveh L. Afrasiabi is a former political science professor at Tehran University.

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