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Safwat Gabr Books – Writer and political researcher (a series of articles on Iran and the Arab world)
Second article March 21, 2021
Iranian foreign policy since the Islamic revolution of 1979
There is no doubt that the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the largest culturally, linguistically and ethnically independent regions in the Middle East, which has made the state of the mullahs one of the many determinants. Iranian foreign policy, and it is certain that it directs specific policies towards the Arab world in general, and Egypt and the Gulf States in particular, and always Iran tries to project a positive image of the world as if he was the main defender of Islam and the appearance of moderation before the Jews. , Christians and the West.
Some of the dimensions and political determinants that she pursues recently to gain favor with the United States of America and Israel through her media channels of acceptance of the liberal American-Israeli idea of the new Abrahamic religion became clear. Muqtada al-Sadr even described the Pope’s recent visit as a consolidation of the idea of religious tolerance! (which Iran cannot practice! With the Iranian Sunni group), not only because the Iranian side believes in the security of the Western intention to spread this approach to the new religion and ideological tolerance among religions, but rather an attempt to gain the approval of the American and Israeli sides at the expense of the Sunni Arabs and to create a Sunni / Jewish conflict far from his region.
The Iranian foreign policy industry stems from the beliefs of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution, who is the head of the executive and legislative authority, and more than that, that he has authority over the President of the Republic himself who is effectively bound by all the orders of the Supreme Leader, and he must accept any question concerning the state inside and outside, in his capacity as absolute guardian and ruler. Iran’s view of its regional and international problems, especially with regard to its relations with neighboring Arab countries, is determined by mechanisms or determinants, the most important of which are:
First: the guardians of the revolution
The leaders of the Iranian revolution established a new militant political ideology to secure loyalty to the Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guards, and Khomeini tried to train it previously from the land of Iraq where Khomeini was based before his departure for Paris. And since Islam. the Iranian revolution succeeded, it worked to establish the idea of the impossibility of deviating from the jurisprudence of the mullahs’ regime. In the Iranian collective spirit, by making this revolutionary guard an iron barrier separating the public and private financial institutions in power Iran. Indeed, one of the functions of this revolutionary guard is to protect political and religious figures outside the borders of the state of the mullahs and to work to export the revolution to neighboring Arab countries in all ways, and to d ‘warn the Arabs that any attempt to fight the Iranian theocratic state will face the Revolutionary Guards, who take their orders directly from the Iranian Revolutionary Supreme Leader, and Iran has used it. To effectively liquidate the opposition inside and outside Iranian borders, and although Iran had international clout in conventional weaponry, the revolution and the first Gulf War proved that the system of The Iranian army must be reformulated as one of the most important decisions of the revolution, arming Iran and modernizing its naval arsenal and its land and air defenses. historical hostility with the Arabs, whom Iran considers a threat to the course of the revolution and not to the Iranian state itself, since the Arab-Persian conflict has taken sectarian form in subsequent centuries, and what recently followed regional tensions with neighboring Arab countries, particularly Iraq.
Second: the distinguished geographical location of the State of Iran
Iran is one of the largest countries in the region, and unfortunately this was not covered enough by the Arab media, as it has enormous natural resources. Iran occupies a distinguished regional position which combines South and West Asia with common borders with the former USSR. Union, Turkey, Iraq and the Gulf of Oman in addition to the Arabian Gulf, in addition to the expansion of its area, that it has given strategic directions with about 8 countries as common land borders, and riparian borders in the Caspian Sea with Kazakhstan and Russia, and in the Persian Gulf with Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman. All of this is one of the advantages of the Iranian region which has given it weight as a determinant of its foreign policy.
Third: Iranian political systems that control its domestic and foreign policy
The first of those systems which have religious, political and strategic importance is the institution of the guardian or guide, followed by the committee of experts and the maintenance of the constitution, which in turn controls all aspects of political life. , including the army. . The provisions of the Constitution give to the guardian or guide all the powers in the management of the affairs of the country, including foreign policy, Among his powers are to dismiss the president, to forgive, to revoke judgments, the general command of the armed forces , and to order a referendum and resolve any dispute between the authorities. Among the definitions of the regulation are:
– The Assembly of Experts, composed of 86 members, elects a president who will be guardian or supreme guide
– The Constitution Maintenance Council consists of 12 members, half of whom are judges responsible for electoral matters.
The Council of expediency to settle disputes between parliament and other councils.
As for the executive, judicial and legislative powers, they are all anchored in the orders and wishes of the chief.
Fourth: Iranian political and ideological currents
It is often between the fundamentalist current which follows the supreme leader of the revolution and the rest of the religious institutions which are affiliated to him and the reformist movement which considers some enlightened and reformists as mere bubbles or a criticism of the existing situation in vain, because the and the Assembly of Experts are the decision-makers and even the decision-makers of foreign policy. And the complete mixture of religion and politics, but this politico-cultural-religious determinant has taken another slope as the state in its general form tends towards a consensual consensus. secularism despite the apparent religiosity of authority there Islam, as an ideology, has become a government political Islam, but at the grassroots level the question is different.
Export Iranian thought and revolution and create a new scarecrow for Arabs
As Khomeini declared when he arrived in Tehran in February 1979, we will export our revolution to the whole world so that everyone will know why we made the revolution.. Our revolution must be exported to all regions of the world, it is not mistakenly understood that we want to open countries, the meaning of the export of the revolution is for all people and all governments to wake up. This is how Ayatollah Khomeini formulated the new Iranian Ideology.
Some Arab political analysts who follow the Iranian question may not disagree that the religious establishment has the ultimate say in the direction of Iranian foreign policy, especially with regard to Arab or Islamic countries. Therefore, Iran’s regional role in the Arab region worsened with the advancement of weaponry, its nuclear program, and the growth of the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian, which in turn reflected militarization. of the political system, which directly affected international relations in the Arab world.
The author of these lines believes that the Arab transformations and revolutions have helped Iran intervene in the affairs of some Arab countries, and this is clearly implicated in Iranian expansion in Syria and Lebanon, so the community International recently abandoned the struggle and overthrew Bashar al-Assad in Syria for reasons that the author of these lines will address in a later article.
The more sectarianism and civil wars increase, the more the Iranian role and the Revolutionary Guards in the countries of the Arab world are activated, and at the same time the weakness of Arab institutions and organizations, like the role of the Arab League, has considerably contributed to Iran’s expansion, notably with the freezing of Syria’s membership in the Arab League, giving Iran a golden opportunity to replace the Arab role there.
At the same time, Arabs are divided and slow to react to successive developments, even after the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco announced normalization with Israel, Iran resorted to creating a new scarecrow. among the Arab peoples and rulers, because Iran often precedes the Arabs. world with steps in prioritization for the simple reason that Iran, despite its many limitations, has supreme authority is one, but Arab countries have many international regimes, kingdoms, principalities and republics intellectually and politically different, so it is difficult to agree on many topics. Iran intends to stress its balanced position and the international consensus to wrest a regional role and control the course of events with its Arab neighbors, and win any political conflict with the West. Unfortunately, this is due to the absence of the Arab national. project opposite the Iranian regional project.
We therefore find that Iran is good at playing the game of political crime with the Arab side, as it expands into Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and kills its opponents, the Kurds and the Iranian PMOI, we find him flirting with Egypt and Saudi Arabia through statements about taking his interests or making strategic agreements, but it is the same that supports the armed opposition in Arab countries, through his militia, and it’s another click!
To be followed by another article.
Safwat Gabr – Writer and political researcher.
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