Iran plays the justice card

18 May 2006

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was treated like a pop celebrity in Indonesia while on his state visit last week. The popularity of Ahmadinejad among the Indonesian public has highlighted the wide appeal of Iran's defiant position in the Muslim world. The logic of Iran's position is simple: if the nuclear technology is good for the United States and other developed states, why not us? This question taps into a deep sense of resentment at the unjust nature of international relations and the prevalent hypocrisy that characterises US relations with the Muslim world. There is a broad consensus among Muslims of diverse political persuasions that the present global order lacks justice when it comes to them. This is an emotive issue and President Ahmadinejad has shrewdly pegged Iran's nuclear ambitions to it. The question of justice in Iran's foreign relations goes back to the early days of the Iranian revolution in 1979, and is intricately linked with US-Iranian relations. As a mainstay of the detested Pahlavi Monarchy, the United States was scorned by Iran. Relations between Tehran and Washington went into free fall when Islamist students took US embassy staff hostage, an episode that lasted 444 days. But contrary to conventional wisdom, even at the height of the hostage crisis and certainly after the saga, Iranian foreign policy makers did not reject direct bilateral links between Iran and the United States. Instead they emphasised their desire to be treated as equals as a pre-condition for any improvements in relations. Tehran’s portrayal of Washington as a bully and domineering power reflected Iran’s vibrant revolutionary domestic setting. This conjured up the image of David versus Goliath with reverberations that affected the Muslim Middle East and beyond. Iran’s revolutionary fervor may have cooled over time as the population became increasingly disillusioned with the promises of the Islamic regime. But the logic of Iranian foreign policy has not. Under the leadership of former President Muhammad Khatami, policy makers embarked on a serious attempt to revamp Iran's international image. The notion of ‘dialogue among civilisations’ gained international acclaim as the United Nations declared it the theme of global celebration in 2001. The notion of dialogue as a remedy to global tensions between the West and the Muslim world advanced the protagonists towards a constructive resolution of a number of key issues. First among them was the idea of openness to hear and acknowledge the position

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Iran plays the justice card

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