Iran’s president-elect laid out his country’s foreign policy in an open letter to the world on Friday, praising the Eastern bloc and attacking the Western bloc, just one day after NATO ended its summit with explicit criticism of China, Russia and Iran.
Massoud Pezeshkian’s letter, published in English by Iran’s state-run daily Tehran Times, is a further sign of Iran’s firm embrace of Russia and China, even as the president-elect insists that his government will pursue “constructive engagement” with all countries in the world except Israel.
“China and Russia have always stood by our side in difficult times,” Pezechkian said in an article titled “Message to a New World.” “We look forward to cooperating more extensively with Beijing as we move toward a new world order… and my administration remains committed to expanding and strengthening cooperation.” [with Russia].”
Iran has long been leaning eastward, moving away from the original “neither East nor West” slogan put forward by the Islamic Republic’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini shortly after the revolution in 1979. This leaning eastward reached an unprecedented pace when Iran began supplying Russia with kamikaze drones, which were then used to attack targets in Ukraine.
In contrast to its gratitude to Russia and China, Pezeshkian’s letter shows little warmth toward the West. He accuses the United States and Europe of causing “hundreds of billions of dollars of damage” to the Iranian economy and “untold suffering, death and destruction to the Iranian people” through steadily increasing sanctions since the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.
“The United States and its Western allies not only missed a historic opportunity to reduce and manage regional and global tensions, but also seriously undermined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) by demonstrating that the costs of adhering to the principles of the nuclear non-proliferation regime may outweigh the benefits it provides,” Pezeshkian wrote, accusing Western powers of “abusing” the NPT and “fabricating” a crisis over Iran’s nuclear activities.
For more than two decades, the Iranian government has maintained that its nuclear program is “purely civilian.” However, experts, including those at the United Nations nuclear watchdog (IAEA), agree that Iran’s highly enriched uranium cannot be explained without a weapons program. The IAEA has long demanded that Iran be given greater access to its facilities, but Iran has not only rejected the requests, but has also limited IAEA inspections in retaliation for the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal.
It is unclear whether a “moderate” Pezechkian will have enough influence to try to defuse the nuclear crisis or revive the nuclear deal he promised Iranian voters to pursue. Judging by his tone in “Message for the New World,” relations between Iran and the West are likely to worsen, but they are just as likely to improve.
“I look forward to a constructive dialogue with European countries,” the Iranian president-elect said, before warning that Europeans “should realize” that the rights and dignity of the Iranian people “can no longer be ignored.” But the sternest message was predictably aimed at the United States: “The United States also needs to recognize the reality and understand once and for all that Iran will not and will not respond to pressure.”
Pezeshkian’s “to the new world” message follows a letter he published in Arabic on Wednesday in which he called for cooperation and a united front with Iran’s neighbors against the “monopoly of world decision-making by certain forces.” The regional charm offensive was echoed in the president-elect’s second letter.
“Under my administration, we will prioritize strengthening our relations with our neighbors and promoting the establishment of a strong region, not one in which one country seeks hegemony and dominance over others,” Pezeshkian said. “I firmly believe that neighboring and brotherly nations should not waste precious resources on corrosive competition, arms races, or unjust containment.”