For many years the Iranian government is witnessing global isolation, and isolation which is because of the regime’s nontransparent and dangerous nuclear project, its malign acts in the Middle East, support of terrorism, its missile project, and finally the most important its human rights violations case.
The advancement of these policies is because of the ruling theocracy’s reactionary and tension-seeking nature, under the pretext of export of its so-called Islamic revolution.
All of them are in line with the repression of the people and hiding its internal crisis from the world. The truth is that in a short time these policies have achievements for the regime, but in the long period, they are to the detriment of the regime.
Even worse they have put the regime in a confrontation with the world and the entire Middle East, in addition, it has increased its internal crises.
The state-run daily Etemad confessed to this isolation in an article entitled ‘Iran’s strategic solitude, De-stressing, and introverted’ and wrote:
“’Iran’s strategic loneliness’ has created many bottlenecks and tragedies for our country, especially in the contemporary history of Iran.
“This loneliness is inherently stressful. Tensions with Turkish neighbors, tensions with Russian neighbors, tensions with Arab neighbors, tensions with Pashtun neighbors, tensions with Uzbeks, tensions with religious and linguistic backgrounds that are inconsistent with the religion and language of Iranian society, tensions with an international order, and, most importantly, contextless tensions with coalitions and political alliances, etc.
“On the other hand, tensions, especially constant tensions with the surrounding environment and the world, are gradually destroying the roots of development and leading the country to poverty and backwardness from its neighbors and peers, conflict and violence, and finally disintegration.” (Etemad, September 22, 2021)
In such a situation, naturally, the speech of the regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi at the UN General Assembly should be in the favor of de-escalation and solving these issues, but to the contrary, he made things even worse so that even the state media mocked him.
The state-run daily Setareh-e-Sobh wrote: “There can be no meaningful connection between Raisi’s presence at the UN General Assembly and the future of the JCPOA. The criterion for the conclusion of the JCPOA is to change the Islamic Republic’s positions on the JCPOA on the one hand, and on the other hand, Western countries, especially the United States, take practical steps to revive the JCPOA, including the lifting of sanctions.” (State-run daily Setareh-e-Sobh, September 22, 2021)
The necessity to take practical steps to revive the JCPOA and essentially improve relations with Western countries is to retreat in three areas of nuclear, regional policy, and cut support of terrorism, and stepping back from the missile program.
Another daily while referring to ‘burnt opportunities’ wrote:
“The president’s words had no positive point. Repeating repeated statements and saying sentences that were more like headlines.
“First, in this text, we should express our firm views on the continuation of negotiations, the need for sanctions relief, the return of blocked money, continued cooperation with the IAEA, the issue of oil and energy, and Tehran’s relations with neighbors, and then in the second step, let’s move on to the issue of Afghanistan, the situation in Yemen and Syria, and finally talk about pandemic conditions in the world.” (Aftab-e-Yazd, September 22, 2021)
Another daily also mocked Raisi and wrote:
“He started with a series of general descriptions that began that we are an old, independent country and we have our own opinions.
“These positions were not very new and had been announced many times before. Since there was no new word or position in Raisi’s speech, some are likely to object, saying that Iran should take advantage of the opportunity to address the General Assembly in a better way.
“There are criticisms, but it is better not to deal with this issue very much at the very beginning of the government’s work and forget it.” (Jahan-e-Sanat, September 23, 2021)
If the regime does not agree on the JCPOA and other matters that major Western countries expect, in addition to nuclear negotiations with its regional interference and missile program, there will be no agreement.
Meanwhile, the United States has stated that the regime will not receive more from the negotiations and must be convinced of the small level of a privilege it has made in the past few rounds of negotiations in Vienna.
Therefore, the regime must either accept something higher than the 2015 JCPOA and accept a JCPOA+ including limitations to its regional and missile programs, or while raising tensions with these countries, its nuclear case will be sent to the UN Security Council, and it must accept the dangerous consequences.
It is not without reason that Jahan-e-Sanat newspaper advised Raisi to take care of his speech and stances on foreign affairs, especially in the field of nuclear and relations with the United States.
“The U.S. political system and its economy have tremendous influence, despite all the threats it faces, and Russia and China never currently have U.S. power. Therefore, it should be noted that we should not say that only costs for Iran and there is no benefit from it.”
The regime is stuck and must choose between bad and worse, and confronting the international community will solve nothing and will create an even more suffocating atmosphere.
