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ID:
174502
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| Summary/Abstract |
There has been persistent confusion among European and US diplomats over the public statements of Ayatollah Khamenei on matters of foreign policy. Despite significant Iranian pragmatism in negotiations, Khamenei’s pronouncements are consistently combative. P Sadeghi and Jack Watling examine the evolution of the concept of velayat-e faqih, which underpins the position of the Supreme Leader, and how it has been promulgated, and argue that Khamenei has developed a narrative of infallibility. This, combined with the obligations pertaining to his office as an Ayatollah, have made him uniquely constrained in his ability to publicly alter his language. At the same time Khamenei has worked to centralise power around his office, thereby creating a paradox by which the most powerful decision-maker in Iran is unable to offer clear public leadership for fear of being proven wrong.
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| 2 |
ID:
138162
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Islamic Republic of Iran has pursued full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). In doing so, Iran has appeared to be unfazed by the prospect of allying with Russia and China, two countries which have systematically suppressed their Muslim minorities for decades. Similarly, the SCO's Central Asian member states are led by individual leaders who are generally believed to rule in spite of their populations. As a result, Iran's eagerness to join the SCO may appear to contradict its self-promoted image as the champion of Muslim interests, but in reality it sits nicely within its overarching enmity for the USA. Indeed, the SCO is seen as a geopolitical counterweight to the USA. For Iran, this geopolitical opportunity overrides ideological imperatives, with the gap between ideology and geopolitics most evident under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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