Iranian Foreign Policy Behavior 2005–2013

Abstract

In the fall of 2006, the Centre for Scientific Research and Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran held a round table meeting on the foreign policy of the Ahmadinejad administration. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki (2005 until 2010) was invited as a guest speaker. During this meeting, the foreign minister identified a shift in Iranian foreign policy behavior under the new administration, which he argued was a response to two developments. The first development was the failure of the previous administration to come to a constructive dialogue with the West on an equal basis; and the second the increase of Western unilateralism and, with it, international opposition to this development. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he recounted, the Non-aligned Movement lost much of its impetus and assertiveness, while the West pursued unilateral global domination. The rise of China, India, and Russia added to the intricacies of the global system, but did not prevent Western global domination. After the events of September 11, 2001, the United States pursued unilateralism in an even more determined way, Mottaki explained. When the Iranian reformist government initiated a dialogue with the West, the West did not reciprocate. Since then, Mottaki said, “a revision of Iranian foreign policy has become essential,” and the Ahmadinejad administration “has sought a new approach in Iran’s standing with the Western world based on the teachings of the Islamic Revolution and the Late Leader of the Revolution.”KeywordsSaudi ArabiaForeign PolicySecurity CouncilArab WorldIslamic RepublicThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.