Tehran, IRNA – The Islamic Republic has accelerated a diplomatic campaign in recent months to strengthen ties with neighbors as part of broader efforts to balance against the potential threats of an aggressive and uncompromising United States and an increasingly malign Israel.
The foreign policy of amicable relations with neighbors, which Iran has implemented to varying degrees of urgency and success over the last four decades, has taken on new significance for the country as a belligerent U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to mount pressure on Iran and as Tehran rules out negotiations with Washington. The diplomacy also comes as Israel has significantly ratcheted up tensions with Iran and its allies in West Asia.
The pursuit of robust neighborly ties, which is being carried out chiefly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not only helps alleviate any unsubstantiated concerns about Iran in Arab capitals but can also help offer avenues for relief from increased U.S. pressure on the Islamic Republic, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei, who was interviewed for this article.
Baqaei said that, starting after the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Iran developed the “strategic vision” of establishing peaceful relations with its neighbors. That policy has extended into the present time, he said.
But there are signs that it has achieved greater significance under President Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, given the state of affairs in the region and beyond.
Diplomatic exchanges between Tehran and regional capitals have been substantial, and Iranian officials have been speaking more frequently of the prominence of neighbors in Iran’s foreign policy.
Baqaei admitted that enhanced relations could come in handy at difficult times.
“In circumstances where you sense that the international environment has turned less favorable compared to the past — for whatever reason, be it the United States’ policies, unilateralism, the European Union’s approach, etc. — that could be when you could count on the region,” Baqaei said.
Iran has a plan
But if the external milieu seems to have changed for Iran, the country has ensured that it is prepared internally.
Baqaei said Iran was constantly studying Trump’s behavior, and that of his foreign policy and national security aides, and had extracted relevant behavioral patterns. Scenarios as to how the U.S. president would proceed vis-à-vis Iran and corresponding contingency plans have been developed, according to the Iranian official.
He said Iran was even considering its neighbors’ perceptions of Trump in order to proceed with the regional diplomacy with a clearer mind. He argued that regional countries had reason to believe that the Trump administration’s policies would not be merely to Iran’s disadvantage and that going along with those policies would have negative implications for their own interests as well.
Over the course of the past months, that foreign policy of “neighbors first” may have already helped mitigate unnecessarily hyped-up tensions between Iran and its Arab neighbors, Baqaei said.
And as the U.S. president turns the basic rules of diplomatic engagement on their head by resuming “maximum pressure” on Iran while speaking of a willingness to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, and as Iranian officials rule out negotiations under such conditions, active regional diplomacy finds even greater urgency.
Trump has been speaking of a keenness to negotiate with Iran since he took office for a second term in January. Nevertheless, on February 5, he signed a presidential memorandum to restore a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran that he had launched in his first term.
‘That’s not going to work for us’
Two days later, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said negotiating with the United States government would be “unwise” and “not honorable.” And on March 2, President Pezeshkian said he was committed to the position outlined by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei regarding negotiations with Washington even though his own view had initially been different.
Baqaei acknowledged that one principal way to have the sanctions removed was to negotiate with the sanctioning state. But he was straightforward about why recourse to dialogue with the United States and other concerned parties would not work currently.
“Right now, I think the circumstances are not conducive because they’re either unwilling or unable to lift sanctions due to their inability (Europeans) or because of their twisted perceptions regarding the current state of play; they suppose, unrealistically, that they can push for more without giving any concessions sanctions lifting-wise, and that’s not going to work for us.”
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