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In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini's revolutionary regime initiated sharp changes from the foreign policy pursued by the Shah, particularly in reversing the country's orientation toward the West. In the Middle East, Following Iran's initial post revolutionary idealistic and hard line foreign policy and the Iran-Iraq war, the country has begun to settle down into a more objective and rational foreign policy. However, this is still occaisonally overshadowed by rhetoric.
In recent years Iran has made great strides in improving relations with its neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia. Iran's regional goals are dominated by wanting to establish a leadership role, curtail the presence of the United States and other outside powers, and build trade ties. In broad terms, Iran's foreign policy emphasizes:
Despite these guidelines, however, bilateral relations are frequently confused and contradictory due to Iran's oscillation between pragmatic and ideological concerns.
The country's foreign relations since the revolution have been tumultuous. A number of varying factors account for this, the most important among them is Iran's significant anti-western backlash after it's revolition (The roots of this were in the west's support for the Shah).
At this time, Iran found itself very isolated due to its hardline and agressive islamic foreign policy which wanted to see it's revolutionary ideals spread accross the Persian Gulf.
This resulted in confrontation with the U.S. in the hostage crisis.
Iran's relations with many of its Arab neighbors were also strained by Iranian attempts to spread its Islamic revolution. In 1981, Iran supported a plot to overthrow the Bahraini government. In 1983, Iran expressed political support for Shi'ites who bombed Western embassies in Kuwait, and in 1987, Iranian pilgrims rioted at poor living conditions and treatment and were concequently massacred during the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Nations with strong fundamentalist movements, such as Egypt and Algeria, also began to mistrust Iran. Iran created Hizballah with the Israelli invasion of Lebanon. Furthermore, Iran went on to oppose the Arab-Israeli peace process, due to it seeing Israel as an illegal country.
Iran also concerend European nations, particularly France and Germany, after it's secret service executed several radical Iranian dissidents in Europe.
Tensions with Iraq had never been good historically, however they took a turn for the worse in 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, in the Iran-Iraq War. Much of the dispute centered around sovereignty over the waterway between the two countries, the Shatt al-Arab, although underlying causes included each nation's overt desire for the overthrow of the other's government.
Iran demanded the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Iranian territory and the return to the status quo ante for the Shatt al-Arab as established under the 1975 Algiers Agreement signed by Iraq and Iran. This period saw Iran become even more isolated- with virtually no allies, Iran was forced to sign UN Security Council Resolution 598 in July 1988 after the United States and Germany began supplying Iraq with chemical weapons. The cease-fire, resulting from the UN Resolution, was implemented on August 20, 1988; neither nation had made any real gains in the war. It left 1 million Iranian's dead and had a dramatic effect on the country's foreign policy. From this point on, the until then radical islamist government, recognised that it had no choice but to moderate and rationalise their objectives.
Since the end of the war, Iran's new foreign policy (see introduction) has had a dramatic effect on its global standing.
Relations with the European Union have dramatically improved to the point where Iran is a major oil exporter and trading partner for countries such as Italy, France, and Germany.
China and India have also emerged as friends for Iran. Together, the three of them face similar challenges in the global economy as they industrialise and concequently find themselves aligned on a number of issues.
Iran has also become a key trade partner for South Korea and Japan, while it has become a millitary research partner with North Korea.
Iran maintains regular diplomatic and commercial relations with Russia and the former Soviet Republics . Both Iran and Russia believe they have important national interests at stake in developments in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus, particularly on energy resources from the Caspian Sea. Russian and other sales of military equipment and technology concern Iran's neighbors and the United States.
Disputes:
Illicit drugs: Despite substantial interdiction efforts, Iran remains a key transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroinHeroin or diamorphine ( INN) (colloquially referred to as junk, babania, horse, brown, smack, black tar, big H, lady H, dope, skag, juice, etc is an alkaloid opioid. Heroin is the 3,6- diacetyl derivative of morphine (hence diacetylmorphine and is synthes to Europe; domestic consumption of narcotics remains a persistent problem and Iranian press reports estimate that there are at least 1.2 million drug users in the country. Iran has been trying to increase the profile of it's anti-drugs campain abroad, however it is facing little success. Most countries support it politically, but refuse Iran the critical equipment and training it needs.
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