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Iran at Crossroad in Afghanistan Crisis: Analysis
As the US strikes in Afghanistan goes wild, Iran, while denouncing Washington's actions and officially ruling out possibility of military cooperation with its decades-old arch-foe, has started to review regional issues in a pragmatic manner.
Mixed voices regarding the Afghanistan crisis have been heard here over the past days. While Tehran's rhetoric keeps trashing the U.S. offensives, calls for wisely dealing with the situation are increasing.
Iran frowns at the US tit for tat retaliation, yet by no means favors its neighbor's ruling Taliban officials who shelter Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the terror attacks in New York and Washington on September 11.
Official denunciation not subduedTaking cue from the hard-line supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran officials' rhetoric has largely been revolutionary and radical.
Ali Akbar Velayati, senior advisor of Khamenei in foreign affairs, said that "the US is getting used to taking advantage of the U.N. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for securing its dubious interests."
Viewing that the US hostility toward Iran has not alleviated a bit, the former Iranian foreign minister opined that "a very probable intention of the U.S. is to confront with Iran in both Afghanistan and its northern central neighbors."
Expressing deep concern over the spreading of flames in the crisis-prone region, Secretary of the State Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaie warned on Saturday that the ongoing U.S.-led air raids could "lead to World War III."
Minister of Information Ali Yunesi has referred to the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan as a "big blunder," deeming that these assaults are signs of "U.S. collapse in the international scene, similar to what happened in the former Soviet Union."
U.S. offensives are "unwise," Yunesi said, pointing out that the West's "arrogance and its extreme reliance on machinery, money and science has made the U.S. disregard even its own future."
Joining in the chorus of condemnation, Minister of the Interior Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari lamented that the year of dialogue among civilizations, a notion initiated by Iran's detente-seeking President Mohammad Khatami, has turned into a year of war and bloodshed.
He deplored that "blood for blood retaliation is a mentality of the ignorance era."
Another noteworthy tune was played by Ali Soufi, Iran's Minister of Cooperatives, who said the role of America "can be likened to that of Don Quixote's, who thought he was the strongest man in the world, commissioned to wipe out all vices from the face of the earth."
Suggesting a logical solution to combat terrorism, Iran's Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mostafa Moin holds that the world should turn to perpetual dialogue and the spirit of coexistence as a means to campaign against violence and terror.
Moderate President Khatami has underlined that "the U.N. is the most suitable venue for an all-out and fundamental fight against terrorism."
Iran's role in and stance on the whole thingAs America's air strikes against Afghanistan continue and its operation in the war-shattered country reaches the second phase, Iran's high-level diplomats have started a new round of shuttle diplomacy to coordinate the country's position to the crisis with regional states as well as western powers.
Iran is at odds with the hard-line Taliban malitia, which is deemed by Tehran as a destabilizing menace in the region and blamed for causing series of trouble for Iran.
While voicing Iran's misgivings over the U.S. use of force under the pretext of eradicating terrorism, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi ruled out a role for Taliban leaders in future Afghan government during his recent trip to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, both have common borders with Afghanistan.
The Taliban "have a dark past" and its share in the future government "unacceptable," Kharazi agreed with Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmonov.
The top Iranian diplomat maintained that the post-war Afghan government should group all political parties and tribes.
Meanwhile, the West has largely acknowledged Iran's role in the region.
The Islamic republic and France have reached consensus on the shape of the post-war Afghan government while British Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw has termed Iran's role as "essential" in all negotiations on the composition of a post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the IRNA news agency has reported.
Nicole Fontaine, president of the European Parliament, termed Iran as an "important regional state" when meeting visiting Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. And Belgian deputy Foreign Minister Jan de Boch viewed Iran's role in the region as strategic.
Realizing its importance in the region, pragmatism-minded officials in Tehran have insisted that Iran should get actively involved in the whole matter for the sake of national interests, rather than being a neutral observer.
Many in Iran have complained that the foreign policy apparatus has failed to take advantage of the unfolding crisis, thus urging those in charge of formulating foreign policies to adopt clear and well-calculated stance on Afghanistan issue.
National interests at stakeAs international diplomacy has already focusing on the post- Taliban government, many Iranians, while dreads being left out of the process without a say, see the current situation accompanied by both challenges and opportunities.
Lawmaker Reza Yousefian termed the ongoing situation as a " unique opportunity that may not recur," urging the nation to gain the upper hand in all talks, and "then the U.S. will be compelled to accept our conditions."
Reports are saying that Iran's lack of cooperation with the U.S. would actually prevent it from playing a major role in Afghan developments and give a free hand to its rival, Pakistan.
Towse-e (The Development), a reformist daily, quoted a university professor Davoud Harmidas Bavand as saying that "Iran's political system is expected to make the optimum use of the opportunity in terms of resuming ties with the U.S.."
But "the rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran depends on Washington to shift their Iran policy," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has stated. "The U.S. has not yet understood our country, out people and the importance of Iran in the Islamic world as well as in the region," he said.
However, Iran's own stake in Afghanistan ranges from the political to the economic.
Entekhab (The Selection), a moderate daily close to the conservatives, has quoted sources as saying that the U.S. President George W. Bush has already approved four proposals made by a U.S. special committee. These proposals include lifting of economic sanctions imposed on Iran, crossing out Iran's name from the U.S. list of states accused of sponsoring terrorism, U.S. support of Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization and removal of restrictions currently in force in Iranian imports from the U.S.
But whatever emerges, Iran's hard-line conservatives and reformist are unexpectedly to see eye to eye on the whole range of things.
At crossroad, Iran is concerned about the consequences for its security of the regional instability, but, at the same time, gingerly treading a line, in a hope, that leads them to more gains than loss.
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