In order to trace down the current state of affairs in the Middle East—where a whole host of menaces ranging from terrorism, civil wars, and unrepresentative regimes are hallmarks of its politics—we need to have a thorough observation of the historical intricacies that have brought about this situation.
“Ambassador Mousavian on Iranian Foreign Policy and Its Challenges,” Foreign Policy Concepts, November 12, 2015.
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“Seyed Hossein Mousavian: Iranian expert, former diplomat,” Abhiram Karuppur, The Daily Princetonian, November 11, 2015.
For the last 35 years, I have devoted my professional and personal life to advance peace and security in one of the world’s most turbulent regions—the Middle East, in addition to addressing key issues facing the international community from nuclear proliferation risks to countering terrorism and bringing about regional security. From 1997 to 2005, I served as the Head of Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council and once the Iranian nuclear file came under international scrutiny, I joined the Iranian nuclear negotiations team as the spokesperson from 2003 to 2005.
“BRIDGE BUILDING FOR GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY,” Global Risk and Opportunity Report, Q3 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.
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.
Dim prospects for US-Iranian rapprochement in Syria
It took more than four years, 250,000 lives and millions of refugees, but for the first time, all of the major players will sit down at the same table and discuss a road map to end the civil war in Syria.
“Dim prospects for US-Iranian rapprochement in Syria,” Deutsche Welle, October 29, 2015.
Why Iran doesn’t want to stay in Yemen
he Ansar Allah movement in Yemen, commonly known as the Houthis, has always extended a very special respect for the Islamic Republic of Iran. While not as deep as portrayed in Western media, ties between Iran and Ansar Allah go back in time. Indeed, the founder of the Yemeni movement — Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, the brother of current leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi — traveled to Tehran as far back as 1986, in the heyday of the Iran-Iraq War.
“Why Iran doesn’t want to stay in Yemen,” Al Monitor, October 27, 2015.
