Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in talks on Iran's nuclear program at the UN. Nancy Siesel/Demotix.All rights res.Iran’s foreign policy is stuck between a rock and a hard place. President Rouhani has been trying to break out of the impasse by finding a solution to the protracted nuclear dispute. But this goal has proven ambitious. The deadline of P5+1 talks with Iran, which involves the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France plus Germany, has already been extended to 31 March 2015. It is difficult to see if there has been progress, and more importantly, if the progress made will be sufficient to placate both parties: Iran and the international community. However, the elusive deal over Iran’s nuclear program and the removal of international sanctions is not the only challenge to policy makers in Iran.
Much to President Rouhani’s dismay, Iran has been dragged into a regional crisis that is undermining its appeal in the Arab world and sapping its diplomatic energy. The sectarian war that has engulfed Syria and Iraq is chipping at Iran’s ideological foundations and pushing it into a corner. Iran does not wish to be seen as a Shi’a state in the Arab world. It insists on its Islamic identity. However, the turn of events has forced it to act as a Shi’a state and come to the aid of other Shi’a players in the region, thereby vindicating its critics who have been warning of Iran’s expansionist plans on the back of Shi’a communities in the Arab world. This image is exactly what Iranian policy makers have been keen to avoid.
From its inception in the wake of the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has projected itself as the champion of the Muslim masses against the arrogance and overweening policies of ‘the West’.
