Iran: Victory of Reason
“The prelimiary settlement is a true victory of reason. Since yesterday the danger of a further war in Middle East has slightly decreased. With it, the risk of a nuclearly equipped Iran has clearly gotten smaller. This is good and it is a success of diplomacy,” declares Jan van Aken, spokesperson for foreign policy of the DIE LINKE group in parliament regarding the results of the negotiations of the five veto powers and Germany with Iran in Lausanne. “This solution has become possible mainly because there now is a readiness for negotiation and compromise between presidents Obama and Rouhani; unthinkable during the reign of Bush and Ahmadinejad. If anyone had further insisted on a tough stance – as then also parts of the federal government did – we now had no agreement and stood at the edge of the abyss.” Van Aken further:
“From my point of view, Iran doesn’t need nuclear energy. Sun and wind for energy production are available in abundance. But of course, like other nations, Iran has the right to a civil use of nuclear power, and this right was confirmed by the preliminary result in Lausanne. The justified mistrust towards Iran, which actually promoted a secret nuclear weapons programme until 2003, has been answered by comprehensive scrutiny and a restriction of the programme.
The success of Lausanne demonstrates one thing clearly: sanctions as a means of foreigh policy do not produce such results. Iran was already most severly sanctioned during the years of Ahmadinejad. But this hardliner did not give in. Only the election of Rouhani changed politics in Teheran towards a flexible line, which considers the fears of the West and does not hide behind a wall of slogans.
Now it is necessary to stipulate the details of the agreement and then to actually implement them. One has to assume that the hardliners in Teheran and Washington will continue to do everything to prevent the agreement. Therefore it is essential to keep calm and, when in doubt, to do a onesided step forward to not endanger the agreement in the last minute.
We can only hope that now other topics will shift into focus. For me, the human rights situation in Iran is one of those issues. As soon as possible the human rights dialogue between EU and Teheran has to continue. Further, more attention has to be paid to the regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which more and more destabilises the region. This concerns Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. This conflict is not the root of all evil in the region. But it is the decisive accelerant in the Middle East today. There can be only stability and peace if a reliable balance between both states is accomplished. To bring about this balance is now the task of diplomacy, including the German one. It should act as a fair mediator not siding with the house of Saud.