Articles

Kourosh Ziabari - Foreign Policy: Since taking office, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other top officials in President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration have repeatedly floated their new “balanced foreign policy” approach that prioritizes developing closer ties with neighbors and bolstering alliances with Asian countries. Shortly after his confirmation as the nation’s top diplomat in August, for instance, Amir-Abdollahian wrote on his Instagram page that he would pursue “a balanced, active, dynamic, and smart foreign policy based on mutual respect, prioritization of relations with neighbors and Asia, development of balanced relations with all regions of the world, and the strengthening of the role...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: While Iran finds itself throttled by US economic and banking sanctions that are still a far cry from being repealed, a new layer of complexity has been added to the country’s economic misfortunes – the government has put a wholesale ban on imports of home appliances from South Korea, and is gearing up to apply bans on other foreign products. On September 29, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instructed President Ebrahim Raisi to ban the importation of home appliances, specifically from “two South Korean firms” which he didn’t name, reportedly to stave off the insolvency of domestic manufacturers. He noted in his brief memo that the domestic firms had only just begun to stand on their...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: There is no shortage of critical commentary, analysis and coverage of the undemocratic practices of the Iranian government and its defiance of its international obligations. In newspapers and on cable television and online platforms, a fusillade of alarming updates is fired every day at Iran’s nuclear program, its imprisonment of journalists, political activists and dual nationals, and its regional escapades. To be sure, governance structures are flawed, social fissures are deepening rapidly, promises of adherence to human rights are mere window-dressing and, because of inveterate mismanagement, the national economy is collapsing, as are the livelihoods of millions of Iranians. Against this...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran and Azerbaijan have stepped back from the brink after a series of rhetorical barbs, territorial complaints and military provocations, a spike in tensions that reflects fast-shifting alliances and intensifying power games in the region. The dust-up ensued after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev gave an interview to the Turkish Anadolu Agency on September 28 wherein he accused Iranian truck drivers and fuel transporters of violating his country’s territorial integrity by moving goods to Armenia through the Goris-Kapan road in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik Province, which Azerbaijan claims as its own. President Aliyev said the road that previously facilitated Iran-Armenia border trade was...

Asia Times - Kourosh Ziabari: As the Raisi administration continues to refuse to chart a clear path for the resumption of the stalled nuclear talks with world powers in Vienna, and the removal of the daunting sanctions on Iran remain improbable, things are getting worse for the average Iranian. The naked truth about the oil-rich country is the unchecked entrenchment of poverty has been worsened by the government’s soaring budget deficit and the withdrawal of foreign investors who once helped prop up different sectors of the economy. In 2019, and in a bid to incentivize the influx of foreign capital and resources into Iran, the moderate Rouhani administration proposed an initiative whereby international investors lending credit...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: As the Taliban moves to establish its new Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan, neighboring Iran is divided on whether to grant the Islamist regime its stamp of diplomatic approval. While Iranian authorities no doubt welcome America’s military departure from neighboring Afghanistan, Tehran and the Taliban have their own troubled and turbulent history – one that will be hard to bridge and sell to the Iranian public that the militant group has changed its stripes. Officially, Iran has lent its voice to wider international calls for the formation of an “inclusive” Afghan government representative of the nation’s diverse ethnic and cultural makeup to avoid future conflicts. The Taliban’s announced...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s aversion to the United States, which progressively morphed into an antagonism toward the collective geopolitical reality known as the West, was one of the founding precepts of the 1979 movement that gave birth to the Islamic Republic. Followers of Middle East politics know well how the US support for Iran’s deposed Shah and how the hostage crisis alienated the two former allies that had rarely wavered in their commitment to each other’s security and prosperity since they established diplomatic relations in 1883. But the induction of the world’s first Islamic Republic in Iran not only upended that decades-long conviviality, but unleashed a new period of blind enmity that only worsened...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran’s dire economic straits are beginning to dawn on new President Ebrahim Raisi – and it’s not immediately clear ex-judiciary chief has a viable solution in sight. The new leader, who earlier said he would not be beholden to foreigners in deciding his economic policies – reference to the US sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy since 2018 – is now reaching out for help. Raisi has galvanized his foreign envoys to engage in so-called “economic diplomacy”, a new government buzzword he first aired on the campaign trail that is apparently central to his plan for reviving the nation’s fortunes. That’s because domestic-driven economic options are limited. US sanctions have...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: On the surface, a crisis should be emerging on Iran’s eastern border as the Taliban seizes power and establishes a new Sunni-led Islamic emirate. Yet despite a history of hostility rooted in Sunni-Shiite antagonism, Tehran doesn’t appear troubled by the militant group’s return to power. Iran shares a rugged 921-kilometer border with Afghanistan, one that has seen dire spillover effects over the course of its long war. More than three million Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants now live in Iran, a point of tension over the years. But Iran is now seeking to turn a cross-border crisis into an opportunity as an incubator of post-war reconstruction, with multiple trade, security, energy and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: When a radical vigilante rammed his vehicle into two women in the Iranian city of Urmia on August 8 after criticizing their flouting of hijab rules, local authorities promised decisive action for the assault after the assailant’s arrest. But like those before him who have assaulted and attacked Iranian women over their state of dress, he’s widely expected to walk free. The attack, which went viral on social media, has reignited debate on compulsory hijab laws, with many questioning the sustainability and practicality of the strict Islamic dress code in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran’s hardline approach to the hijab is distinct from almost every other major Muslim country....

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: With new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s official inauguration, all eyes have turned to his likely pick as foreign minister and the candidate’s view of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal that now hangs in the diplomatic balance. The parliament, or Majlis, says the new cabinet line-up will be revealed early this week. It is widely anticipated that religious traditionalists and hardliners will sweep the board in filling the vacancies. The early conjecture was that Ali Bagheri, a Raisi colleague at the judiciary as the Vice-Chief Justice for International Affairs and a former nuclear negotiator under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would get the nod. However,...

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Iran and Saudi Arabia are inching towards a rapprochement that, if achieved, would profoundly shift the region’s dynamics, diplomacy and stability. Officials from both sides have recently hailed backchannel talks held first in Iraq and now in Oman as “constructive.” In May, Iraqi President Barham Salih confirmed his country had been hosting quiet talks between the two often bitter rivals. The talks, which started in April, have recently been attended by high-profile delegates, including Saudi chief of General Intelligence Directorate Khalid al-Humaidan and Iranian Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Saeed Iravani. The first symbolic breakthrough could be seen as early as...