Iran has a particular foreign policy due to its Shiite background and history and its involvement in other regions and conflicts, such as the Moroccan Sahara, since it sends weapons to polisario, thus perpetuating this conflict.
Iran: Foreign Policy and Visions
The USA has had complicated relations with Iran since the revolution against the Shah in 1969 and got worse after the US embassy affair when the Iranian military seized 66 American diplomats. Add to it the Iranian Nuclear projects, which slowed down following the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” signed in 2015. Those complicated relations directly impacted trade between the two republics and made it weak compared to other countries, knowing that the US was imposing sanctions on Iran.
Iran did not have advanced relations with the URSS and its regime. Still, there has been significant progress in security and political ties between Tehran and Moscow after the fall of the Soviet regime, with trade and cultural exchange still lagging far behind despite the current opportunities. To assist and collaborate with Tehran during this period of economic strangulation on the Persian state, Moscow launched the remote sensing satellite, Khayyam, on August 9.
The new geostrategic division does not address the areas of friction between Iran and Saudi Arabia, from Lebanon to Yemen, via Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain, because all regional issues are impacted by the strategic rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran, where two cleavages are facing each other, Sunnah and Shia, as between Tehran and Tel Aviv, the 1st ideological enemy that Iran wants to destroy.
Conflicts like those in Syria, Libya, and the South Caucasus have been a source of animosity between Iran and Turkey for a long time. However, they occasionally have shared interests, such as the Kurdish independence issue and the past diplomatic conflict between Gulf countries and Qatar.
Iran is spreading its roots in North Africa. Iran and Algeria enjoy good relations built on cooperation, while Morocco severed diplomatic ties with Iran in May 2018 when it used Hezbollah to support the polisario and the Algerian regime against the territorial integrity of the kingdom.
The Moroccan-Israeli rapprochement deepened the gap between Morocco and Iran. It brought the Persian country closer to Algeria, which is doing its best to gain credibility for the polisario and win supporters and financing. In early October, the polisario began to threaten Morocco with drones coming from Iran.
Trade relations with Iran
| Countries | Exports (in dollars) | Imports (in dollars) |
| Russia | 1.52 B | 562 M |
| USA | 36.6 M | 10.6 M |
| KSA (2018) | 248 M | 104 M |
| UAE | 4.53 B | 345 M |
| Turkiye | 2.14 B | 119 M |
| Algeria | 300 M | 29.2 M |
| Morocco | 2.64 K | 11.6 M |
| Israel | 4K | 2K |
| Iraq | 57.4 M | 8.95 B |
| Lebanon | 7.02 M | 23.3 M |
| Syria | 6.33 M | 156M |
| India | 2.24 B | 277M |
| Pakistan | 3.2 K | 3.2 K |
Source: OEC
The Iranian Foreign Policy is based on mutual interests and ideological affinity, being a Shiite or anti-western country.
Iran: Religion’s Significant Impact on Policies
The Iranian policy is inspired by the country’s Shiite ideology background, primarily based on the revolution of 1979 when Iran began to be perceived as a threat in the region with its new regime and as a form of nationalism. The 1979 Revolution, led by clerics and militant ideologues under the control of the Shiites, institutionalized the ideology of Velayet-i Faqih. This made the duties and powers of Religious Leadership mentioned in more than 15 articles of the Iranian constitution.
Thus, in an attempt to spread its regime, Iran uses religious affiliation as leverage over the Shiite population in the region, especially in the Levant, India, and Pakistan. This made religion’s impact on Iran’s policies undeniable and a strategic element in fostering diplomatic, economic, and security ties between Iran and other countries.
Iran’s Defense: A Pillar of its Foreign Policy
After the revolution, Iran’s security and defense strategy became a priority in domestic and foreign policy, relations with its allies, and its balance with global powers.
After 2017, the USA, Israel, and the Gulf countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia formed a front against Iran and increased their cooperation to counter its influence in the region. This drove Iran to fill this gap by supporting the Shiite population and taking steps to increase its impact.
In terms of nuclear energy, Iran signed the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan in 2015. This restricted Iran’s enrichment of uranium to a maximum of 3.67%. However, Iran announced that it would not comply with the commitments and increased the level of enriched uranium to 60% in 2018. This led the Trump administration to withdraw from this agreement unilaterally and increase its sanctions.
Currently, Iran is close to the 90% rate for nuclear weapons to be made and has started to pose a danger to the countries in the region and the world again.
Since the USA maintains that it won’t guarantee it won’t quit the pact again, previous attempts to achieve a new agreement have been fruitless. Therefore, nuclear questions were on the table of discussions between Putin and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the Tehran summit on July 29.
*Goktug Caliskan is an International Relations researcher.