President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran has a Herculean task to face as he assumes his high office. Though the conservative scholar carries the confidence of supreme leader Syed Ali Khamenei as well as the religious-right, he will be tested closely on his executive initiatives. Three formidable tasks will surely keep him bogged down, especially revitalising the economy, reviving the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with the US and attending to the spiralling pandemic.
Three decades of crippling international sanctions has pushed the revolutionary regime to the brink. Donor agencies estimate inflation at around 40% along with a plummeting currency, which has literally robbed 85 million Iranians of their right to growth and prosperity. But that seems to be fait accompli as long as Tehran rises to the occasion and recasts its foreign policy with a new vigour by reaching out to the West, especially the US. It’s high time Iran walked the extra few miles in order to gracefully become part of the international order in vogue, rather than dragging its feet for domestic consumption. The post-1979 policy of playing to the gallery should be reconsidered by President Raisi, in his pursuit to rebuild Iran as a welfare state.
Raisi’s predecessors Hassan Rouhani and Syed Khatami did all in their capacity to tread a consensual path on the international stage, despite pressure on the home front. Raisi should galvanise that process and reach out to the US with a quid pro quo equation. Normalising relations with Washington, restoring the P5+1 nuclear deal and opening up Iran’s economy are sine qua non for survival. The octogenarian supreme leader too is in favour of rapprochement, and Raisi with his enriched wisdom can turn a new leaf of renaissance for Iran.
Iran should also reorient its regional policy, and come to terms with the Arab world. The wars in Syria and Yemen have undermined Iran’s geostrategic vitality. It has led to isolation in an era of economic amalgamation. Raisi has an opportunity to recast a new approach. The resilient Iranians definitely deserve a better deal.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 5th, 2021.
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