For Iran’s foreign policy to change

Iran’s interference in the Middle East has created many problems.

Its policy vis-à-vis Syria, Iraq and Yemen has been a source of tension between Iran and the GCC countries.

Last week, the Brookings Doha Centre hosted two speakers from Iran, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Qatar, to explore the possibility of a rapprochement between Tehran and other GCC countries, particularly Saudi Arabia.

The discussions were supposed to focus on whether there are strategies for de-escalation and better understanding between Iran and those Arab countries.

Being part of the audience, I was looking forward to hearing the speakers outline a roadmap for bringing about such rapprochement. 

The two Arab speakers were candid and made clear the fact that for a rapprochement with Iran to become a reality, Tehran needs to change its interventionist foreign policy.

While they welcomed the idea of dialogue with the Iranians in general, they were not oblivious to the fact that a dialogue for the sake of dialogue could hardly change things on the ground.

The grim reality, especially in Syria, requires deeds not words.

On the other hand, the two Iranian speakers echoed the Iranian official line.

They insisted that Iran is acting in self-defence. One speaker even alluded to the “democratic deficit” in much of the Arab world as the main reason for the tension.

Ironically, he kept talking about the lack of democratic regimes in the Arab world as if Iran were a full-fledged democracy. 

He, however, failed to defend his position when he was countered by the argument that Iran is in no position to lecture others about democracy when it strongly backs dictators and butchers such as Bashar Assad of Syria.

The other Iranian speaker tried to defend Iran’s interventionist foreign policy by focusing on Iran’s perception of threat.

He made the case that Israel posed the greatest threat to Iran and Tehran needed a strategic depth it got by propping up the Syrian regime and Hizbollah, in Lebanon.

I felt that I wasted my time listening to the polemics of the Iranian speakers.

The Iranians wanted us to realise that their country was a regional power and hence it had “legitimate” interests in Syria.

Iran must feel emboldened by the recent developments and the nuclear deal with the six great Western powers.

Its miscalculation comes from its belief that the Arabs would accept its hegemony in the region. 

Iran’s perception that the US is gradually withdrawing from the politics of the region makes it believe that there will be a vacuum that it is qualified to fill.

It is not that Iran is not a rational state. On the contrary, it understands the logic of the cost-benefit formula. Hence, unless Iran understands that there is a high-price tag for continuing its revisionist foreign policy, it will continue following such negative policy.

Cutting Iran down to size is imperative if rapprochement is to take place.

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