In the midst of all the understandable optimism in the social media regarding the nuclear deal with Iran, iterating an important fact looms as a necessity: While it is a well established right and within IRIs rights to pursue a peaceful nuclear program, the emphasis on and the political spectacle around reaching this deal has served as the single most important phantom-stratgey by the Iranian government to stir and rally the Iranian public opinion around a national cause, that of a native nuclear programme - as if the entire quarrel between the West and Iran is simply over Irans right to a native nuclear program. The parallels drawn with the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran only underlines this approach, while undermining the true nature(s) of the post-election struggles of 2008, the geopolitical divide propagated by both Iran and the West, the war over consumer markets and energy, the long-term outlook of the Middle East, the regional wars, etc. This is similar to the Rob Ford issue in Toronto. He has successfully made the entire debate - which should be about his inability to run the city - revolve around the issue of his addiction, buying the pity of the sympathetic public opinion in the process (remember, we want him out of the office not because he is a drug users, but first and foremost because he is an incapable mayor). Similarly, the Iranian situation is not only about the nuclear issue or the rights of the Iranians to autonomy and making their own decisions. As long as we continue to phrase the problematic in the nation-state terminology, we are only replaying the existing monologue of national egotism that plagues the region. By virtue of the fact that Iranian people vote for President Rohani, they are also sanctioning the IRIs intervention in Syria, its support for local militias in the Middle East (wether you call them freedom fighters, terrorists, or popular groups with the license to kill), the crackdown and execution of activists in Iran, etc. Same goes for the American democracy and its more or less negative presence everywhere else outside its borders. This is not to blame participation in democracy or democracy in itself, but to emphasize the responsibility that comes with every cast vote. Ultimately, we need to step away from the local terminology of us, home, homegrown, native, outside/inside, and the likes, towards a more comprehensive dialogue that does not reduce the Syrian crisis to a bargaining chip in the Iranian nuclear deal. This deal should only be evaluated within and as part to a wider framework of political, economical, and regional reforms.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 19:45:08 +0000
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