Essay on Etemad Newspaper April 24, 2021 -
The original text was in Persian and the following translation was done by Ai.
As quiet as the atmosphere around the JCPOA and the possible return of Iran and the US to their commitments under this action plan was last year, since the middle of the Nowruz holidays, significant changes have occurred in this area and in other areas of the country's macro foreign policy: from the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister and the signing of a cooperation document between them to later news based on a renewed spirit at the quarterly meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, which marked the beginning of a series of in-person meetings in Vienna. This news did not end and was supplemented by the visit of the Russian Foreign Minister and the South Korean Prime Minister to Tehran, as well as the scattered news of Iran-Saudi Arabia talks in Baghdad and with Iraqi mediation. In the meantime, Zarif continued his periodic trips to Central Asia and Southeast Asia, and everything was moving forward at a realistic and logical pace in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs despite the Nowruz, Corona and election holidays.
Domestically, however, sensitivities have increased due to the electoral atmosphere among the elite and politicians, and in some cases, it has made the conditions for advancing national interests somewhat difficult. The most important of these are the obstacles that some tendencies, probably with electoral intentions, are blowing the trumpet for the US to return to its commitments through the Vienna negotiations.
One of the controversial issues last week was the broadcast of a program made by the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation criticizing the negotiations leading up to the JCPOA and the nuclear negotiating team. "End of the Game," whose name was chosen intentionally and considered the subject of the technical and complex nuclear negotiations to be a "game," relied more than anything on the optimism and simplicity of the negotiating team and their supporters in the government, and presented a one-sided narrative through interviews with the harshest critics of the JCPOA, despite all the explanations given by the authorities over the past few years.
The main theme that distinguishes this program from other similar programs that have been produced and broadcast over the years is its reliance on a think tank called the International Crisis Group, which was headed by Robert Milley, the current head of the Iran desk at the US State Department, before the current administration of the United States. The program claims that the Crisis Group had a great influence on the text of the negotiations and that the text of the JCPOA was actually written by this group before any negotiations: as if the negotiations were all a role-playing game and that the naive Iranian negotiating team, after a year and a half of drama in Muscat, Geneva, Lausanne and Vienna, had accepted a pre-written agreement and imposed it on the country without even reading it. The main theme of this issue, which has indirectly disrespected both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the negotiating team and, first of all, the high-ranking state officials, the National Security Council and the Islamic Consultative Assembly, is not the subject of this article.
What this note attempts to convey is a more accurate picture of today's world politics and diplomacy and its difference from the past, and the difference between today's skilled diplomat and someone who is merely in a formal position of negotiation and diplomacy.
The reality today is that diplomacy has changed greatly not only in the political sphere but also in the fields of energy, trade, science, etc. in the post-Cold War era. If during the Cold War, security organizations and their levers played the greatest role in diplomacy, today the form of diplomacy is most often in an environment consisting of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, think tanks and major universities, lobbies, conferences, and forums with which interaction to advance national interests and establish the country's position is nothing short of formal and direct negotiations.
Today, one of the characteristics of an outstanding diplomat is the ability to attend, speak, and negotiate in these forums, and ultimately influence the minds of people who ultimately play a role in creating the atmosphere around a negotiation and in general the international environment.
If Zarif was known as an influential and efficient person during his presence and embassy in New York, it was not only because of his regular duties but more than anything else because of his appearances, speeches, and interviews: something that other politicians today are also trying to do as much as they can.
The fact that the International Crisis Group was one of the effective think tanks in the JCPOA negotiations is not a new and mysterious issue. But it remains to be seen what role the proposals of think tanks like the Crisis Group played in the negotiations. Of course, talking to think tanks and groups like this is a more effective way to impose one's views in the negotiations and find a practical solution to meet our demands in line with national interests, and the outcome of these efforts, of course, depends on the skill of each country's experts and negotiators. In other words, perhaps our team was able to indirectly but more easily convince the other side of its positions through more open-handed consultations and use this tactic to complete direct negotiations.
This is the true picture of today's world politics and diplomacy: It is obvious that in foreign policy we must pursue our interests and develop the content of our discourse for this purpose, but the tools of policymaking in the international space are not something that we need or sometimes can reinvent. Using multiple paths in accordance with the permits issued in today's diplomacy is part of the ability and expertise of a negotiator and diplomat.
What can be assured is that if Zarif had meetings with American individuals outside the government of this country during Trump's time, it was certainly not without authority and permission, and he should not create a space in the public arena for election and domestic policy purposes that would make the work of our negotiators in the future more difficult and their hands would be tied even more than before.
Whatever the text, produced in any quality and bearing the name of the JCPOA, has shown so much capacity that it has led the most angry of all Iran's ill-wishers, such as Trump, Pompeo, and Netanyahu, to such isolation and passivity in the international space that neither the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, nor the Security Council sided with them: the reality was that regardless of the leverage that always exists in the authoritarian international space, Trump violated the JCPOA, but the world did not accept him.
The way to play more effectively in the current diplomatic environment is not to ignore these professional realities and become isolated, but rather to continue to strive so that we too have think tanks and groups at the forefront of international politics and diplomacy, so that, while being professionally independent, they can exert their expert influence on regional and international politics and make the work easier for the official apparatus.
Now it is the same: diplomacy and de-escalation is a long-term line. If we have chosen this line and paid the costs associated with it, we must work for decades, not to negotiate on every issue and with everyone, but to create practical and real programs and options within the established frameworks to free the other side. This is the way to advance our discourse and develop national interests, and to advance this content, we must use different paths: this is the form of diplomacy today.
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