El diplomàtic iranià Seyed Hossein Mousavian va participar en les negociacions que, entre el 2003 i el 2005, van intentar una primera aproximació entre la comunitat internacional i l’Iran sobre el seu programa nuclear. Instal·lat actualment als EUA -dóna classes a la Universitat de Princeton-, va ser a Barcelona dissabte per participar en un seminari del Cidob.
“Amb l’Iran, la diplomàcia funciona més que la guerra,” Marc Vidal, Ara.cat, January 19, 2016.
Saudi Arabia started 2016 shamefully by carrying out its largest mass execution since 1980, putting 47 men to death on Jan. 2. Among them were at least four prominent Shia activists, including a leader of the kingdom’s Shia minority, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The killings have spurred a new round of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two regional powers.
“14 Reasons Why Saudi Arabia Is a Failed Mideast Power,” Hossein Mousavian, January 7, 2016.
The global powers that met two times in Vienna for landmark discussions on ending the war in Syria may meet again in New York this month while several hurdles remain. In a March 2015 op-ed for the National Interest, I proposed a six step plan with 10 principles to resolve the Syrian conflict. During the past two years, I have sought to promote this proposal in numerous international seminars and conferences.
“To Solve the Syria Crisis, We Need to Overcome These Three Obstacles,” Hossein Mousavian, The Huffington Post, December 7, 2015.
The former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw looks at the evolution of the West’s troubled encounters with Persia, and then Iran, from “Great Game” imperialism, through the 20th century politics of oil, to the recent stand-off over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Bridging the Gulf with Tehran,” BBC News, December 6, 2015.
“Seyed Hossein Mousavian: Iranian expert, former diplomat,” Abhiram Karuppur, The Daily Princetonian, November 11, 2015.
“Nuclear deal and Iran’s future as regional power,” The Chautauqua Institute, August 21, 2015.
Coverage: “Kiyaei, Mousavian discuss nuclear deal and Iran’s future as regional power,” Sam Flynn, The Chautauquan Daily, August 22, 2015.
Ayatollah Khamenei first permitted direct negotiations between Iran and the United States on the nuclear issue after US President Barack Obama came into office, during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Direct talks were held first in Vienna in 2009 and continued in Muscat in 2012. With the election of Rouhani in June 2013, a more professional nuclear negotiating team was appointed and a more favorable international political climate for serious negotiations was created. To accommodate a nuclear deal, Ayatollah Khamenei gave permission again for direct talks between Iran and United States, allowing for the bilateral negotiations that proved to be the critical prerequisite to the nuclear deal to eventually be reached.
Indeed, it is of crucial importance to note that the Rouhani administration would not have been able to reach and uphold the nuclear deal without the support of Ayatollah Khamenei. Hard-line domestic opponents of Rouhani would have certainly killed the deal if not for the supreme leader’s explicit support for the administration and nuclear negotiators. When the parliament was debating the nuclear deal these past several months, I was in Iran and witnessed firsthand the bellicose nature of the opposition. The rhetoric reached such a level of hostility that at one point a hard-line parliament member menaced Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, threatening to put him and Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi in the “heart” of Iran’s plutonium reactor and “bury” them “in cement.”
“Will Iran’s nuclear diplomacy lead to regional solutions?” Hossein Mousavian, Al Monitor, November 3, 2015.
The Pivot to Tehran
For more than four years, the Obama administration has accused Iran of being a chief instigator of Syria’s bloody conflict and has rebuffed persistent appeals by the U.N.’s top peacemakers, who maintained that any durable political settlement would be unthinkable without granting the Islamic Republic a seat at the table. The price of a ticket to peace talks, the State Department long insisted, was an unequivocal commitment from Tehran to endorse a U.N.-brokered peace settlement resulting in a political transition and the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.
“The Pivot to Tehran,” Foreign Policy, October 29, 2015.
Archrivals Saudi Arabia and Iran are experiencing their first regional talks in Vienna on the Syrian conflict. Since assuming office in August 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has initiated several overtures to Saudi Arabia, attempting to mend what has steadily devolved into a dangerously adversarial relationship in the years since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Rouhani, who called for better ties with Saudi Arabia shortly after his inauguration, made his first diplomatic outreach to Saudi Arabia at a critical juncture. He dispatched his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to visit several of the Arab Persian Gulf states shortly after the November 2013 interim nuclear deal was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations.
“Why Bridging the Iran-Saudi Divide Is Vital for Peace in Syria and the Region,” Hossein Mousavian, The Huffington Post, October 30, 2015.
After a U.S. Shift, Iran Has a Seat at Talks on War in Syria
Iran on Wednesday accepted an invitation to attend a broad new round of negotiations to resolve the Syrian war, sitting with longtime adversaries including the United States and Saudi Arabia who once sought to bar the Iranians from any role in Syria’s future.
“After a U.S. Shift, Iran Has a Seat at Talks on War in Syria,” New York Times, October 28, 2015.
