We have all heard the
many jokes about George Bush Jr.’s low IQ and non-existent wits, how his poor
knowledge on world affairs cost thousands of Americans lives and billions of dollars and how
anyone – including the commentator - could have made a better decision on the
Iraqi and Afghani files. Funny were the jokes I admit, but perhaps not quite
accurate. The same comic approach is being used to describe Obama’s
administration and persona, where not only is the president depicted as being
lost and weak, but also as unwitty and not so shrewd when it comes to
international affairs. Perhaps analysts and political observers have their
right to such an argument, but as an average Arab citizen with some interest in
political issues, I concluded that this argument does not hold.
My
observation was strengthened after the announcement of the deal struck between
the Axis of Evil and Satan himself on the
nuclear file, but of course, name-calling was dropped on the happy occasion.
Leaving Israel livid at the break through and the world split between those
happy for the victorious Iran and those ashamed with American - and UN- weak
diplomacy, the agreement can be considered one of the most significant
achievements of Obama’s administration. Iran and the P-5+1 agreed on November
23rd in the third round of talks in Geneva that Iran would cap further enrichment at 5%; not increase its
stockpile of 5% uranium; not increase its centrifuge capacity to enrich
uranium; stop nuclear-related advances on the Arak facility and allow IAEA
inspectors enhanced access to nuclear facilities, uranium mines, and centrifuge
manufacturing sites. In return, the P-5+1 agreed to suspend sanctions on Iran’s
petrochemical exports, trade in gold and precious metals, auto industry, and
civilian aviation; not impose new UNSC sanctions or EU nuclear-related
sanctions; the U.S. Administration to refrain from imposing new nuclear-related
sanctions; and facilitate humanitarian trade using Iran’s frozen oil revenue
held abroad.
Whilst
Israel warned that fundamentalist, anti-semitic and straight from hell Iran
cannot be trusted and Gulf States deciding how to break up with Washington, the
UNSC and USA in particular hailed the agreement as an important step towards
resolving the controversial nuclear file and neutralizing the crisis for some
time. Was it a wise decision? Did Iran come out victorious? Did Tehran outwit
everybody’ else? Was Obama lost and a bit, well, dumb? Well not really.
Observing statements that have
been made by either sides for the last month or two, one can note a change in
tone in both US and Iranian officials. For instance, it was no coincidence that
Tehran’s temporary Friday preacher stressed during his sermon late October that
using nuclear weapons was Haram, that one week earlier to that
Rohani in a national speech said that he hoped the new Swiss ambassador to Iran
would reveal Iran’s good intentions to Washington and that the infamous
opposition figures Meer Husein Musawi and Mahdi Karroubi, under house arrest
since 2011 (after leading the green revolution that questioned the 2009
elections) were to be subjected to less severe control procedures in a decision
made around the same time. On the international realm, it was also no
coincidence that in late October Britain decided to resume its diplomatic
representation in Iran, deciding to reopen its embassy in Tehran and in fact
appointing a non-resident charge d'affaires to Iran later in
November (after two years after Iran’s ambassador was expelled from the UK
following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran in 2011). The timing of
the the leader of EU parliament's socialist group and the two socialist
representatives' visit to Tehran in October in an attempt to break the ice was
no mere coincidence either. On the last note, Khameni's calls for friendly
relations with all nations, including the USA in a speech made in late October
was not a slip of a tongue. All were preparatory steps towards mending bridges.
Based on the above,
the rapprochement between the West and Iran was no sudden move and no hidden
affair; the USA therefore was only acting as per a strategy to accommodate the
Persian giant into a friendly zone where it seems that history is turning its
page on the mutual accusations, mistrust and animosity between. Whether it was
based on the objective of avoiding a new costly war, an attempt to neutralize
Tehran on the Syrian file, or an actual and genuine attempt to slow down the
nuclear program, the strategy did in fact work. No blood was shed, no loss of
lives, no financial burdens, no unnecessary regional spill overs or a great
deal of meaningless and empty rhetoric. The West, and Iran, got what they
wanted at the least costs paid.
The shrewd Henri Kissinger
said that Diplomacy: the art of restraining power. It is not if
you are not with us you are against us, it is not deadlines and threats, it
is not falsification of reports, not group punishment or religious wars …it is
as Kissinger exactly said: restraining oneself from use of power when possible.
The Obama administration came out victorious in the end: a halted nuclear
program, a rapprochement with Tehran that may be a first step to understandings
on other files, a removed threat from Israel and a demonstration to the entire
world that Iran could, and did, compromise, even to Satan himself. Bravo Obama,
bravo diplomacy and bravo intellect. To conclude, accusations regarding Obama's
passiveness and lack of action are inaccurate and perhaps too haste...he achieved
all that he promised with absolute elegance and calculation... a true diplomat
and an intelligent one as well.
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