Page 1 of 2 Ahmadinejad scores 'fair' in mid-term report By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
An objective mid-term report on the foreign policy performance of Iran's
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is called for. According to Ahmadinejad, in his
recent speech in New York, "compared to two years ago, Iran's position in the
international arena has much strengthened".
On the whole, it is hard to dispute that statement, even though because of the
fluid nuclear crisis and the threats of conflict and/or conflict spillover
related to Iraq, it is difficult to muster more
than a provisional conclusion that may need to be revised if Iran faces serious
setbacks in the near future due to those crises.
For now, however, Ahmadinejad and his foreign policy team can take credit for
strengthening Iran's position, both regionally and globally. Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki had precisely this in mind when he told the Iranian press
that Ahmadinejad's recent New York visit was a "success" and Iran managed to
introduce a "new perspective" on global issues, relying on "clear logic".
According to Mottaki, "Iran proposed the idea of a structural change of the
United Nations and a front for peace solidarity, to expand the anti-war and
peace movements at the level of heads of states, and that has been well
received by many countries."
For this proposal to succeed, however, an important prerequisite is the
adoption of much softer image unencumbered by incendiary rhetoric that
alienates potential allies and adds to the arsenal of Iran's opponents, this at
a time when Iran can ill-afford missing any effort at threat reduction.
On the nuclear issue, the Ahmadinejad government, while complaining of undue
"parallel diplomacy" spearheaded by rival factions, has prided itself for
pushing Iran's nuclear program forward, defending Iran's nuclear rights, and
pursuing a "smart diplomacy" that has brought the US-led drive for further
sanctions against Iran to a halt, albeit temporary, in light of the "5 plus 1"
countries' decision to give more time to the current Iran-IAEA negotiations to
work; regarding the latter, a new round of Iran-IAEA discussions are due in
Tehran this week.
Most Iran watchers agree that Ahmadinejad's presidency will rise or fall on the
outcome of the present nuclear crisis. Iran's economy is being impacted by the
increased sanctions and the latest reports regarding the negative impact on
Iran's trade with the European countries bespeak of a major foreign policy
crisis that needs to be brought to an end, somehow, sooner rather than later.
But, then again, in evaluating Ahmadinejad's presidency, we must bear in mind
that (a) he inherited the nuclear crisis, and (b) his management of the nuclear
file has shown signs of deft diplomacy and progress. A major problem here,
however, has to do with "parallel diplomacy", multi-source nuclear
decision-making, and the need for nuclear centralization.
Parallel diplomacy, however, has its own values and should not be rejected out
of hand by Ahmadinejad and his administration. It can, for instance, weaken the
resolve of Iran's opponents and help ingratiate them toward Iran when, in its
absence, a completely unified and homogenous policy may not be able to.
Yet that may be wishful thinking, notwithstanding Iran's factional politics,
upcoming presidential elections two years from now, and the national security
threats posed to Iran which are eliciting different recipes for action by
different power centers inside Iran.
Contrary to a spate of recent commentaries on Ahmadinejad, it is sheer error to
label him as "powerless" and at the complete beckoning of other, more powerful,
sources of power. In a theocratic republic with an evolving presidency,
Ahmadinejad has managed to increase his voice and input on nuclear policy and
other important realms of domestic and foreign policy (for more on this see the
author's
Ahmadinejad's bureaucratic revolution), and has done so both
as a result of his foreign policy team's achievements cited above and also due
to other areas of success, eg, Iran's new strategic relations with Latin
America, as part and parcel of a new globalist foreign policy that transcends
Iran's immediate region and continent and seeks to forge a global alliance
along Third World lines. It comes as no surprise then that Ahmadinejad flew
from New York to Bolivia and Venezuela, where he was greeted as a champion of
the world's have-nots and was able to sign major agreements with both Latin
nations.
Indeed, Iran's Third World politics have solidified Iran's role in the
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which has fully supported Iran's nuclear rights.
This represents one area of clear and unquestionable success by Ahmadinejad's
administration. The administration has simultaneously expended considerable
energy
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