The world is a much safer place now that Iran has fully complied with the terms of a historic nuclear deal — diplomacy has apparently delivered a decisive victory and averted yet another war. Or so goes the rhetoric of celebrations ringing out from Washington to London to Paris, marking Tehran’s return to the international community.
In many ways, the lifting of crippling global sanctions on Iran is indeed a major milestone.
International business with Iran will be easier to conduct: from trade and aviation to health care, infrastructure and the oil sector, Iran now offers great opportunities for global investments. And deflating Iran’s nuclear weapons programme is great news in a world reeling under waves of security concerns.
But some benefits of the deal clearly appear to be ill-timed — the arrival of another half a million barrels of crude per day from Iran amid an oil market glut is hardly the global economic boost the international community would have envisaged in a post-sanctions era.
More importantly, not everyone in Iran’s neighbourhood would share the same euphoria over what Hassan Rouhani says is a “turning point” for his country. Incidents such as the vicious attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran earlier this month, along with Tehran’s role in regional instability, show that such concerns are not baseless.
Responsible action from Iran to prevent such incidents in the future and curb its belligerent regional rhetoric would go a long way in assuaging the concerns of its neighbours, rather than its grandiose wooing of the West. It will be extremely unfortunate if Iran’s unfrozen funds lead to an escalation of conflicts in a region wracked by turmoil. Therefore, Tehran needs to demonstrate the same parameters of responsibility in its relations with its neighbours as it has shown with world powers in successfully completing the nuclear deal.
And now that the international community’s concerns about Iran have suddenly evaporated, it also needs to ensure the same rigorous standards of compliance with the fineprint of the deal as it generally applies to formerly recalcitrant states worldwide.
