A lesson Iran would do well to heed
▶ Tehran can form good ties with Arab states by relinquishing transnational sectarianism
The Middle East has made substantial gains against terrorism in the past few years. But there is another pestilence that has been obscured by the focus in recent years on terrorism: extremism. Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, advanced this important nuance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Extremism, by encouraging the negation of reason and moderation, breeds the rage and resentment that so often culminate in terrorism. Last year’s annual Arab Youth Survey, as Dr Gargash said, revealed that Arab youth regard unemployment and extremism as the greatest challenges to the region. It is hardly surprising that purveyors of extremist ideologies thrive in societies with a surfeit of thwarted young men – societies where the state has retreated from its obligations and failed its people.
The Middle East, as Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said at the same panel, is home to two competing visions. One, represented by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, strives to build a prosperous future for its young. The other, epitomised by Iran and abetted by its proxies, bulldozes the dreams and aspirations of the young in its calamitous pursuit of hegemony. Meanwhile, Qatar, when it is not wrecking the region’s stability by financing terrorists, contributes to Iran’s sinister scheme by extending hospitality to toxic televangelists and preachers who prey on the minds of the vulnerable. Collectively, these two forces are creating the conditions in which terror flourishes. Iran, the leader of the pack, is deeply mistaken if it believes the Arab world will ever yield to it. Tehran’s conduct has renewed the resolve of its historic victims to bolster their defences and stand their ground. Ultimately, the true victims of Tehran’s ruinous quest for supremacy, as Dr Gargash pointed out, are ordinary Iranians. It is they who have most been betrayed by self-serving “revolutionaries” who seized power in 1979. The recent protests in Iran are a reminder that Iranians will not tolerate a regime that starves them and robs them of dignity while diverting billions to finance terrorist outfits such as Hezbollah and murderous foreign leaders such as Bashar Al Assad.
Dr Gargash raised this to express solidarity with the Iranian people. To their rulers, he proffered sincere advice: treat the protests as an opportunity to prioritise the needs of its people over the desire to destabilise the Arab world. An Iran that relinquishes “transnational sectarianism”, he said, can develop good ties with the Arab world. The clarity of his analysis was accompanied by a plea for normality and a hope for a better future – for the Arab world, but most urgently for the Iranians themselves.