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A group led by foreign policy establishment figure Sadegh Kharazi is trying to revive the fortunes of the reformist movement in a new guise.
Amidst all of the domestic turmoil of Iranian politics and numerous foreign policy issues at the center of the international media spotlight, an attempt by a group of reformists to revive their political current, which has largely fallen outside of the mainstream of Iranian politics since the end of the Green Movement demonstrations, has gone relatively unnoticed. This revival effort has been led by Sadegh Kharazi, among the few reformists in Iran’s senior foreign policy establishment.
Kharazi, an accomplished diplomat, has served as the senior foreign policy advisor to former President Mohammad Khatami, ambassador to France (2002-2006), and ambassador to the United Nations (1989-1995), among other government positions. He holds a B.A. in Management from the State University of New York, an M.A. in Middle East Studies from New York University, and is earning a PhD in History and Science from Durham University. He is also one of the founders of Iranian Diplomacy, a publication which aspires to be Iran’s answer to the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Magazine, and serves on the board of the Foundation for Dialogue Among Civilizations. Kharazi also comes from good pedigree, as far as the Islamic Republic is concerned: His uncle Kamal Kharazi was Khatami’s foreign minister, his sister is the daughter-in-law of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and his son is the son-in-law of the former deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament Mohammad-Reza Khatami.
Since the end of the Green Movement demonstrations reformism has been in a limbo, continuing to exist on the fringes of mainstream Iranian politics with little representation in the halls of power but still making its presence felt in electoral politics, as was arguably the case in the 2013 Iranian presidential elections where they played a role in rallying public support for Hassan Rouhani. Mohammad Khatami, a former president and highest ranking reformist politician, is rarely mentioned in the mainstream press and makes few appearances in public events of significance where senior regime leaders from across the political spectrum gather. Mir Hossein-Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the leaders of the Green Movement and symbolically significant figures among reformists, remain under house arrest. And many other leading reformist figures in the various professions find themselves either in prison or exile. A reformist-oriented minister was even impeached by parliament recently. While Rouhani’s election has given them some hope of political rehabilitation, reformists today largely remain in the out in the cold.
This is part of what makes efforts by Kharazi and his cohort interesting. Working under the name of Iranians’ NEDA Party they have articulated a set of principles in their Strategic Statement 01 which they say takes lessons from mistakes of the past and looks to achieve concrete results in the future: “Our organisational actions are based on five principles of realism, patience, discipline, consensus, and cooperation.” While they elaborate what each of these five principles mean, the first two stand out in particular in terms of their implications for reformist political strategy:
“We are realists who are aware of legal factors in the Islamic Republic regime and recognise potentials, limitations, and opportunities and by evaluating all of these considerations have come to the conclusion that, except by cooperating with the representatives of different ideas, gaining the trust of power-holders, peaceful reformist acting in the framework of the Islamic Republic regime, cannot achieve fruitful, inexpensive, and lasting changes whose benefits reach each and every person.” The group also underlined the importance of “patience”, saying that it would distance itself from “passing excitements” and creating “quick and deep changes” which are “neither possible nor enduring.”
The thrust of the proposed core principles appear aimed at addressing criticisms of the first wave of reformism, namely the Second of Khordad and Green movements, which include having unrealistic goals or strategies for achieving these goals, excessive radicalism in stirring up social expectations and forces, and not working sufficiently from within and in cooperation with the Iranian political system. As NEDA’s statement put it: “We do not think that our ignorance and mistakes are inconsequential in failures and defeats of yesterday.” Kharazi himself dwells on reformists’ supposed past errors in a public note published by Fars News Network, asserting “We believe that extremism, emotionalism, radical behaviours, and the existence of some barriers and impediments have prevented past actions, despite good initial intentions, from reaching the desired outcome,” concluding that “The era of extremism and uncontrolled excited behaviours has reached an end.”
Or, to put it in terms of reformist theoretician Saeed Hajjarian’s famous political strategy of “pressure [by social forces] from below, negotiation [with elites] from above”, Kharazi and this group seek to de-emphasize the type of social mobilisation that led to the Green Movement and instead emphasize intra-elite politicking, a theme which repeatedly comes up in NEDA’s first statement: “Policy-making and taking advantage of opportunities and legal avenues for creating change in the political layers and advancing ideals and ideas, is inseparable part of any reformist strategy.” They go on to say that: “We protect the ideals of the Islamic Revolution and constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran like a precious asset and emphasise following the passed Imam and obey the supreme leader of the revolution…”
The greater emphasis on elite-level politics, however, does not necessarily mean abandonment of the causes Iranian reformists have fought. For instance, in an interview Kharazi talked about the house arrest of Green Movement leaders Mousavi and Karroubi, saying: “They are part of the reform movement and what happened to them is saddening for us and we shall struggle for the end of their mandatory residence.” Note his use of the term “mandatory residence”, which differs from the usual reformist refrain of “house arrest” when referring to this affair. Kharazi’s softening of tone on the Green Movement leaders’ status was not well received by some reformists, including one of Mousavi’s daughters who took issue with this characterisation of her father’s situation on facebook.
Kharazi, who recently suffered from a bout of cancer but has survived for now, seems upbeat about the prospect of this new brand of reformism in his note: “It must be clearly said that the reformist current needs to shed its skin. Yesterday’s old frameworks, unhealed historical wounds, and tactics used in the past, do not meet the needs of the new era of reformism. We must enter the second phase of reformism. Long live reformism, long live the second generation of reformism.”
It remains unclear if his optimism is warranted. Will NEDA simply fade into oblivion, as do many similar political endeavours in Iran? Will it establish itself as one party among many in the reformist political constellation? Or will it redefine reformism as it has been practiced in Iran since 1997? It is far too soon to tell, but both Kharazi and NEDA bear watching for the moment.
> http://www.iranpolitik.com/2014/10/09/analysis/sadegh-kharazi-iranian-reformism-2-0/
