Will Iran reach truce with the Islamic State?
Some members of Iran’s foreign policy elite are suggesting that Iran reduce regional military intervention — a policy that could help US President Barack Obama's administration sell the Iran deal to skeptical traditional allies and their US supporters.
Now that the Iran nuclear deal appears to have survived congressional efforts to derail it, a key question is what impact it will have on Iran’s regional policies.
Contrary to the impression many in Washington seem to have that Iran will inevitably double down on intervention in regional conflicts, some members of the Iranian policy elite are advocating retrenchment to focus on repairing Iran’s sanctions-battered economy, according to Nasser Hadian, a Tehran University professor of political science who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani.
In a new paper to be presented Sept. 14 at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, Hadian wrote that a “pro-minimal engagement” camp is arguing that Iran should reduce its intervention in neighboring states to “a bare minimum."
Hadian does not identify who is in this camp, telling Al-Monitor that those having these views have not yet chosen to make them public. But he said that they include “key figures … among conservatives, radicals, reformers, the military, research institutions, and secular and religious people.”
