Iran needs foreign policy overhaul away from dogmatic analyses: Analyst

A former lawmaker criticizes Iranian officials for following a foreign policy agenda based on “dogmatic, traditional and outdated” analyses of international developments, saying such an approach makes them get caught off guard in the face of the realities on the global stage.

Speaking to Entekhab news outlet, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who formerly chaired the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, pointed out a number of situations, in which the opposite of what the Iranian officials had in mind turned out to be true in the world.

As a case in point, he referred to an analysis, in the course of the Vienna negotiations in the past summer, that Europe desperately needed to import Iranian energy in the wake of Russian sanctions.

That analysis, he said, prompted officials to delay an agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal in the hope of using what they believed to be Europe’s severe energy shortages as a bargaining chip.

The analysis, however, turned out to be untrue as the cold season arrived, the commentator said.

Falahatpisheh said the country is in need of a foreign policy overhaul. “I believe we need a new spirit in the country’s foreign policy,” he said.

“In the world today, only the countries that pursued a policy of de-escalation while preserving the components of their power eventually emerged successful.”

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