The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is based on Ayatollah Khomeini's theory of Velayat-e Faqih, explicitly states that Iran has an Islamic and religious mission in the world. This article tries to clarify the character of Iranian foreign policy and its claims of a religious mission in relation to the modern world of nation-states which originated in the West.
According to the view of Ayatollah Khomeini, the basic unit of political society is not the nation-state but the religious community (Umma), which does not attach importance to the nation, race or territory. However, the reality of this world, and especially of the Islamic world, was its division by the Western colonial powers into nation-states. Muslim people are therefore, by means of puppet governments, subjugated to superpowers governed by human ideologies, and contradicting the divine revelation of Islam. So Iran, as the first and sole Islamic State, has a religious mission to liberate not only Muslims but also all oppressed people of the world from the puppet governments of superpowers (oppressors).
Khomeini's world view logically leads us to the conclusion that the Iranian government may assist the oppressed people of other countries in revolting against their puppet governments, and to avoid diplomatic relationship with their governments. Indeed, we can verify that Iranian foreign policy strongly reflected this world view from 1981 to 1984.
However, in 1984 Iran was forced to change this foreign policy of aggressiveness and isolationism because of the tanker war during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). After that, for the first time since the revolution, Iran started full scale diplomatic activities which included the so-called Iran-Contra Affair. This new Iranian foreign policy has gradually taken Iran towards a nation-state style of foreign policy, with its many twists and turns. This is especially so since the cease-fire of the Iran-Iraq war, the demise of the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and the formation of the Khatami government in 1997.
Parallel to this movement, several theses which try to coordinate Iran's religious mission and its nation-state interest came into being. For example, one thesis presents 10 Iranian principles of foreign policy, which make the realistic nation state interests superior to those of the idealistic religious mission.
But this situation does not mean that the foreign policy of Iran exclusively consists of pursuing nation-state interests. The most typical example for Iran's religious missionary policy, which is jeopardizing her nation-state interests, can be seen in the policy to assist the Palestinian people oppressed by Israel, which has a close relationship with the United States. It is possible to say that Iran's anti-Israel policy has become the symbol of its religious mission.
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