Continuity and Hiatus: Structural Patterns of Iran's Policy in Afghanistan

Abstract

Recently the Islamic Republic of Iran has been under attack, internationally and particulary in the Western media because of its nuclear program, which has triggered fears in Europe and America of Iran as a nuclear power. Beyond this focus of criticism, Iran‟s foreign policy is characterized by a great diversity of other aspects seldom mentioned in the Western media. Since the US invasion in neighboring Iraq, the country‟s regional importance has visibly increased. Politicians will have to take the position of Iran into consideration when thinking about future peace talks and perspectives for the entire region. There are, however, some significant features of Iranian foreign policy under the presidency of Mahmud Ahmadi-Nezhad, the first signs of which were outlined timidly in the time of his predecessor Khatami. These tendencies in the concept of Iran‟s foreign policy are mirrored by the growing interest in Central Asia and its eastern neighbors. Thereby the Iranian government accentuates a strategy aimed at embedding itself within a broad regional network. Afghanistan, its neighbor to the east and hitherto a rather marginal element within the overarching framework of Iran‟s foreign policy, due to its geostrategic position now plays a crucial role in the plans for the establishment of this regional network. From the Afghan point of view, Iran is one of Afghanistan‟s important neighbors; the two countries share a nine hundred kilometer-long border. In addition, since the outbreak of the Afghanistan conflict, millions of refugees have crossed this border, and there are currently more than 1.5 million Afghans living in Iran. However, the actual number of Afghan refugees and migrant workers could be much higher than this estimated figure despite repatriation efforts carried out by Iranian officials. This essay aims at analyzing structural patterns inherent in the Iranian policy towards Afghanistan and the development of this policy during the last century. The main emphasis is on the following questions: How has the Iranian government conceptualized its new Afghanistan policy since the fall