Arabs More Concerned About Iran’s Meddling
Power shifts from hardline to moderate camps in recent years haven’t had an effect on relations with Arab countries
Iranian hard-liners hold anti-British posters in a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016. During elections campaigns and to humiliate reformists, hard-liners have accused their reformist rivals of being backed by the BBC and the British government.
Published: 19:33 February 25, 2016
Jumana Al-Tamimi, Associate Editor
Dubai: The Iranian parliamentary elections do not appear to have gained much interest in Arab countries, largely due to the presence of other “more pressing issues” in Arab nations where Iran is accused of fomenting tension, analysts said.
Iranian interference in many Arab countries, including Syria, Yemen and Iraq has made Arabs less interested in following the internal developments in the Islamic Republic out of their convictions that Iranian foreign policy is unlikely to change with changes in parliament and the leadership.
“There was more attention from the Arabs in previous elections because there were expectations that the victory of different parties would lead to a change in Iran’s foreign policy,” said Mousa Shteiwi, director of the Strategic Studies Centre at Jordan University.
“Most Arab countries are preoccupied with their own issues and more pressing and important regional issues,” he told Gulf News.
“Also, the heightened tensions in relations between Arab countries and Iran has made the differences among different Iranian parties less important to the Arab world,” he said, adding that the election of “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani has not changed Iran’s policy.
Arab countries have long accused Tehran of interfering in their internal affairs, fomenting sectarian tensions and attempting to export its Islamic revolution to the neighbouring countries.
Accordingly, Arab countries look at Iran “as one country” and not different political groupings or different figures, analysts said.
At the same time, Arab countries have other challenges to focus on other than following Iranian polls.
“There is the terrorism challenge; the challenge of eliminating Daesh in Iraq and Syria; the challenge of the conflict in Yemen and the absence of a [functioning] government in Libya”, said Eman Ragab, a researcher at Al Ahram Strategic Studies Centre in Cairo.
However, “the lack of interest in Iranian parliamentary elections doesn’t mean that the threats imposed by Iranian policies in the region are being ignored,” she told Gulf News.
“No matter what happens in Iran, Tehran will not change its foreign policy, which is determined by the spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose position is not impacted by these elections,” she said.
But Mohammad Saleh Sedeqain, director of the Arab Centre for Iranian Studies in Tehran said Iran’s foreign policy is defined by different institutions in the country and that the current elections are important.
The current parliamentary elections are the first to be held after the Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers and lifting of the international economic sanctions on Iran, he noted.
However, Arab preoccupation with other regional issues has “marginalised” the attention given to the Iranian elections, he told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, Shteiwi said that the Arab media must pay attention to Iranian political developments.
“First, we should know how the Iranian political dynamics work. Secondly, we should be familiar with the different trends in Iran if we want to deal with the country, in any way, even if we want to deal with it in a hostile way (in response to Iran’s policies),” he said.
Whether Arabs “like or dislike Iran, we should understand the Iranian state and the Iranian people before taking positions vis-a-vis the country.”