Iranian President Purges Reformers
Unperturbed by the world’s fiery reaction to his anti-Semitic comments a couple weeks ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasn’t refrained from continuing with his controversial hard-line politics. November 2, the Iranian government announced that it was sacking 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats. Deemed too liberal and pro-Western in their ideology, the prominent ambassadors and diplomats will be unemployed by the end of the year.
Those fired include the representatives to London, Paris, Berlin and the United Nations, the four individuals that played key roles in Tehran’s arduous nuclear negotiations with the EU-3 this past summer.
The decision to purge the government of pro-reform diplomats and politicians in such a controversial geopolitical climate speaks volumes about the future of Iranian foreign policy. It would seem now is the time Iran needs its most experienced ambassadors to assuage international concerns over its foreign policy. Instead, the government showed the world that it places little importance on mollifying international concern.
Tehran is rigidly unconcerned about the radical and highly controversial image it projects to the world, and is showing that it will remain dedicated to its hard-line, anti-Western, anti-Semitic foreign policy.
Although most of the positions haven’t yet been filled, there is little doubt that the individuals who will replace the diplomats and representatives recently fired will be avid supporters of Iran’s hard-line leadership. Over the next few months, watch for Ahmadinejad to post right-wing, anti-Western, anti-Semitic individuals in the vacancies left by the recently fired reformers.
The likelihood of this trend was noted in the Times: “It is clear that a very different type of diplomat is likely to emerge from the shake-up. For instance, Manuchehr Mottaki, the new foreign minister, is a former ambassador to Japan and Turkey who was expelled from Ankara after being accused of supporting attacks against Iranian dissidents” (November 2). Anyone willing to look can learn a great deal about the future of the Iranian government simply by observing the individuals that it is comprised of.
Whatever pro-reform, pro-West, pro-rapprochement element existed in the Iranian government is near extinction. President Ahmadinejad is surrounding himself with men of like mind. This is a deeply disturbing trend that should alarm the world, especially the West.
President Ahmadinejad has a definite plan for Iran—and the Middle East—and his recent actions have everything to do with bringing that plan to fruition.
According to Middle East Newsline, Iran is saying it plans to intervene in the affairs of neighboring Middle East nations, including Afghanistan and Iraq. “In the first such high-level assertion, a leading Islamic military commander has placed the United States on notice that Iran reserves the right to intervene in the Middle East, Gulf and Central Asia. The commander said Iran would also seek to control events across the border in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq.
“‘Iran is in the center of three strategic and sensitive regions—the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus,’ Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said. ‘The Islamic republic, for this reason, can play a decisive role in regional, political, economic, cultural and security arrangements’” (November 1).
Complete domination of the oil-rich, strategically situated Middle East is the goal of the Iranian government.
Not since the heady days of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has Iran’s foreign policy been so bold. A few years ago Iran barely made international news; nowadays, the nation publicly declares that it wants to control the entire Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Iran poses a serious threat to several other nations. It’s not difficult to see the problems Iran could create for America in the Middle East. But consider the problems an Iran-dominated Middle East could cause Europe.
Iranian nukes can already reach the Continent. Iran would control a large portion of Europe’s oil supply. It would have open access to the Mediterranean, the soft-underbelly of Europe. More importantly, an Iran-led Middle East would surround Jerusalem, the city dear to the hearts of many Catholic Europeans.
As Iran rallies the Middle East, and steadily moves away from rapprochement with the West, expect Europe to grow increasingly concerned with the direction this leader among Muslim nations is taking. It could even spur European nations to accelerate the process of unification.
President Ahmadinejad will fill his government with men of like mind. Iran will grow bolder in the face of Western nations. Watch to see how this prompts changes worldwide—in Europe’s Middle East policy; in America’s waning influence in the region; even in Asia’s efforts to pull together and present a united front to the rest of the world.
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