Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has intensified the charm offensive that his boss, President Hassan Rouhani, launched upon his election in 2013. Zarif published an op-ed in The New York Times, was interviewed by Charlie Rose, and spoke at the New York University.
The Iranian diplomat reiterated his talking points about a peace-loving Iran, desperately reaching out to its neighbors for dialogue over the many regional conflicts, and extending its hand to the world for a nuclear deal in a "once in a lifetime opportunity."
The Iran Zarif and his lieutenants try to sell is the one CNN's Anthony Bourdain visited and praised—the one with a rich culinary heritage; the one The New York Times' Thomas Erdbrink reports from, where youth parties are held behind closed doors and the sons of ayatollahs—girlfriends by their sides—crash their Porsches into trees. This is the Iran whose "restrictive Islamic laws were written for someone else," Erdbrink wrote.
But no matter how much Erdbrink tries to depict Iran as normal, he might find himself in prison, any day and for whatever reason, real or imagined, just like The Washington Post's Jason Rezaian, who was accused of espionage and thrown in jail. In his stories from Tehran, Rezaian was never critical of the Islamic Republic. If anything, like Erdbrink, Rezaianused his skills to make Iran look promising for Western tourists and investors. Rezaian even appeared in Bourdain's promotion of Iran.
Zarif would not comment on Rezaian's imprisonment or on Iran's dismal record of press freedom and human rights. Even worse, Zarif—who, along with his handpicked supporters inside Washington, accuse anyone who expresses doubts over the nuclear talks of warmongering—remains silent on the S-300 air defense system that Russia said it might deliver to Iran.
Don't expect the foreign minister to comment on any of the statements by Iranian officials, either, many of whom are senior to him. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivers speeches in front of hyped-up citizens pumping their fists in the air and chanting “death to America.” Other Iranian leaders boast about how Tehran "controls four Arab capitals." Iran's top protégés, such as Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, continue to launch vitriol against Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other sovereign nations.
And while Zarif never ceases to stress that his country opposes intervention in the domestic affairs of other nations, Iranian officials—Khamenei first and foremost—repeatedly praise the exportation of the Iranian model of forming paramilitary groups. Even in countries with governments allied to Tehran like Iraq and Syria, Iran has created "popular militias" that report to Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). If this is not interfering in the affairs of other countries, what is?
The image of Iran that Zarif projects is deceptive. Indeed, “the exalted Javad Zarif says what the hardliners say, only in English and with a big smile," says Mariam Memarsadeghi, co-founder of the e-Learning institute for Iranian civil society Tavaana.
Yet in his desperation to seal a deal with Iran at any price, President Barack Obama has bought into Zarif's Iran, often describing it as a nation with a long history and a proud culture worthy of becoming America's best ally in the region.
That Iran is a great nation with a long and rich history is indisputable. That the Iranians have lived with their neighbors, Arabs, Turks and others, for millennia and enjoyed friendly relations is also a fact.
But it’s also a fact is that in its modern history, Iran has been ruled with an iron fist by charlatans who bully neighboring countries, all in the name of religion.
Few want war with Iran, but fewer still want to relieve the sanctions and see money put into the hands of a regime so demonstrably duplicitous. No one wants to give more money to an oppressive government that ranks at the bottom of all freedom indexes and brutally crushes popular uprisings, something it did as recently as 2009.
If Tehran really wants sanction relief, it should cut its revolutionary crap and behave like decent governments do. If it doesn’t, it should be left out in the cold.
Iran’s problems in this vein are old and deep-rooted and are of course greatly compounded by Tehran’s opaque nuclear program. If dealing with Tehran has been hard so far, just imagine how hard handling a nuclear Iran would be.
Everyone would love to see a deal with Iran, but the Iran we see in the Western press is not the Iran we can expect to get. President Obama should do everyone a favor and stop trying to spin Iran as a natural ally to the West.
