Iran courts the US at Russia's expense

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Iran's relations with the Arab world have taken a dramatic turn for the better, in light of Iran's overtures toward the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, as well as in President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's announcement that Iran is prepared to resume full diplomatic relations with Egypt.

That announcement was made on Monday as Ahmadinejad visited the United Arab Emirates and received a rousing official welcome. Widely interpreted as Iran's timely response to US Vice President Dick Cheney's tour of the region and his warning that the United States will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons or to dominate the region, Ahmadinejad's arrival in Dubai coincided with an Iranian olive branch toward not only Egypt but also the US. This is illustrated by Tehran's announcement that it has accepted the United States' invitation for direct talks between American and Iranian ambassadors in Baghdad.

"Iran's foreign policy is moving in the direction of constructive engagement on all fronts," a member of Iran's parliament, the Majlis, announced, adding that the resumption of relations with Egypt will have "positive effects on the whole region".

It is now up to Egypt to bury the hatchet and respond to Ahmadinejad's significant policy announcement. According to some Tehran political analysts, however, there are some voices within the Egyptian government who prefer the status quo, whereby Egypt can capitalize on foreign assistance as a result of its role as a counterweight to Iran, given the growing reliance of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on "out of area" Egypt.

On the other hand, Iran's GCC policy, of pushing the arch of the common or collective security arrangement by all the Gulf states based on the principle of self-reliance, undermines Egypt's attempt to insert itself in the region's security calculus. Similarly, the US is disquieted by official GCC pronouncements that echo Iran's call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the region.

Should Iran remain consistent on the present pattern of regional policy and succeed in helping with the security nightmare in Iraq, then the US/Israeli policy of creating a Sunni-led anti-Iran alliance in the Arab world would vanish into thin air. The process of confidence-building between Iran and the GCC states, which are in dispute with Iran over the three islands of Abu Moussa and Little and Big Tunb, is a long one, however, and Tehran must be careful not send any "mixed signals" that would eradicate the present gains. The GCC comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Dialogue with the US and Iran's new realism
Reflecting a new level of sophistication and diplomatic pro.....

Read More

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear potential latent", Harvard International Review, and is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.