“This new era is totally different from previous eras because of the recent Nuclear Agreement,” asserted Senior Global Challenges Fellow* Mohammad Hassan Khani. “There is an opportunity now that did not exist before for improved relations between Iran and the EU.” Khani, who is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Imam Sadiq University (ISU) in Tehran, made his remarks during a public lecture co-organized by the Center for European Union Research (CEUR) and the School of Public Policy at CEU on June 8.
Khani went on to explain that the Iranian revolution that took place almost 40 years ago in Iran is “still a fresh memory for most Iranians.” The Iran-Iraq war is also “not history” for most Iranians, he said, explaining that many of Iran’s current economic problems date back to this war. Khani said that one of the obstacles to improving relations between Iran and the EU is the support that Europeans (especially the French and Germany) gave to Saddam Hussein during this war.
Another obstacle to improved relations is “double-standard policies,” said Khani. He provided several examples: the fact that the U.S. and Europe consider “nuclear technology bad for Iran, but nuclear weapons good for Israel.” Khani cited also the way in which the U.S. and Europe criticize Iran for supporting Hamas in Gaza while Qatar, for example, that also supports Hamas, is not criticized at all. These double standards pose a “real barrier” to improved relations according to Khani. He went on to say that Iranians do distinguish between the EU and the U.S. “There are many more positive associations with the EU,” he said.
Despite the obstacles posed by history, Khani said that there are many areas of common interests between Iran and the EU. He noted, for example, that Iran has huge oil and natural gas reserves which could meet EU needs. With a population of 80 million people, Iran is also a potentially huge market for EU companies in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries; home appliances; and also auto industry. EU countries could also be large markets for Iranian products such as Persian carpets, and agricultural and mining commodities. There are other ways in which the two could work together: to fight terrorism and extremism; against drug trafficking; to manage the immigration crisis; and on environmental issues.
Khani spoke also about the Iraninan political system, noting that it was an “Islamic Republic,” and not an “Islamic State.” As a republic, Iran shared “huge areas of commonalities” with many western systems, he said. Khani pointed to “key concepts” such as democracy, legitimacy, rule of law, human dignity, accountability, and transparency as examples of what the Iranian and western political systems shared. Khani also stressed the importance of distinguishing between the Iranian and Shia narrative and discourse on political Islam and that of Wahhabism and Salafism.
In his concluding remarks, Khani identified a number of steps that Europeans could take to improve relations with Iran including mutual respect as a principle in bilateral relations, acknowledging Iran’s legitimate security concerns and its role as an important regional player in bringing peace and stability to the region, helping it overcome its climate and environmental problems, encouraging and promoting regional integration efforts, boosting and expanding cultural ties and academic exchanges, and facilitating travel and visa issuance for Iranians who wish to travel to the EU. “There is an opportunity now – one that should not be missed. In my view, the ball is in the European court,” he said.
*The Global Challenges Fellowship is hosted by the School of Public Policy at Central European University (SPP) and the Central European University Institute for Advanced Study (IAS CEU) (Budapest, Hungary) and Global Public Policy Institute (Berlin, Germany). The Global Challenges Fellowship Program is implemented with generous support from the Volkswagen Foundation.