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Building Role Models

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was one of the several European officials who visited Tehran to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. However, his talks with Iranian authorities went beyond regional crisis.

Fischer said German leaders favored promotion of relations between Tehran and Berlin, given the high potentials that existed for expansion of political, economic and cultural cooperation. “I have been impressed by the democratic process underway in Iran that can serve as a role model for other Muslim countries,” he stated, referring to Iran as “an influential country both in the region and the Muslim world.

Familiar Guest

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is a familiar guest now at Tehran’s Sadabad Residence. To follow through on bilateral cooperation, and to discuss greater cooperation for preventing a free fall of oil prices, Venezuela, currently presiding over OPEC, has to conduct a lot of lobbying both with members as well as non-OPEC producers. Weakened by September 11th attacks on USA, global demand did not go well for members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Can they push it back to the fair $22 per barrel? “Each country is sovereign, we have not asked any country specifically to cut a certain quantity,” says OPEC Secretary General Ali Rodriguez.

Two Visits, Two Questions

No visits for more than two decades, and then two visits in about two months. Eventually, the name of the most senior British minister to have visited Iran since 1979 was not Robin Cook; it was destined to be Jack Straw. The visit took place at a sensitive time and involved sensitive issues such as Afghanistan and Palestine where the two governments don’t see eye to eye. As the British Foreign Minister left Iran, we felt that both sides had now a better understanding of the other one’s views and interests.

But then a second visit took place only weeks later that involved meetings with other Iranian officials. All this left us with two questions: Did both visits merely focus on Afghanistan and combat against terrorism? What was the conclusion of other discussions?

Tehran-Vienna Handshake

The visits to Tehran of European Union officials took a greater pace after September 11th. But the official visit of Austrian Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schussel demonstrated a significant enhancement of ties between Tehran and Vienna. In 1999, when Austrian President Thomas Klestil traveled to Tehran, he was labeled as the first president of a European Union country to visit Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Moreover, Iran remembers the two rounds of constructive dialogue that Austria initiated under its term of EU presidency. The most recent visit indicated that constructive dialogue continues at the highest level.