Economic Ties Do Not Necessarily Guarantee JCPOA

As noted in a previous essay, Tehran’s main concern should be the effective implementation and continuation of the deal. Therefore, the main question would be, what factors can be effective in ensuring the implementation of the JCPOA?

In response to this question, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “The deal brings a wide range of interests for both parties. Extensive economic ties could be one of the areas to build trust. This way both sides could be assured that exiting the deal is not cost-effective.”

The origin of such a point of view stems in the Theory of Liberalism and particularly the Interdependency Theory; but, in contrast to what Zarif has stated, it does not seem that the economic ties could be a certain guarantee for the implementation and continuation of the Iran Deal.

Firstly, due to the particular type of relations between Iran and the US, it would be impossible to establish economic ties between the two countries.

Second, according to EU regulations, establishing economic or commercial relations with third-party countries is predicated on the observation of some norms and principles, such as human rights. Therefore, now in the wake of "high-level conversations" between Iran and the EU, the resolution of certain issues, such as human rights and Iran’s support of the Resistance movement, will be raised in exchange for the establishment of economic relations; an issue that could lead to difficulties.

Third, while disregarding the Marxist theory that regards economy as the most important cause of wars and conflicts, it should be noted that the economy in general cannot prevent the rise of conflicts. The most important example of this issue in the 20th century was the issue of economic ties between Germany and the UK which reached a peak in the wake of the beginning of World War II; and obviously could not prevent the outbreak of the bloody war at that time.

A contemporary example would be the Russia-EU economic relations. While Russia is the third largest economic partner of the EU, their relations deteriorated with the emergence of the Ukraine crisis, resulting in the imposition of sanctions by the European Union. Consequently, economic ties with the US could not be a guarantee for the Iran Deal.

The question now is, what is the solution?

I think the most important factor to guarantee the Iran Deal is to change the persisting perceptions and to bring the two parties’ ‘subjective structures’ closer together. With the current perceptions, with which Iran sees the US as an enemy that aims to overthrow the Islamic Republic and the US considers Iran as a main supporter of terrorism and a destabilizer of international order, the deal does not seem strong enough to be invincible.

Fortunately, many efforts have been made by the Rohani administration and especially Foreign Minister Zarif to change Iran’s international image. The achievement of the Iran Deal could be the best example of this. Thus, to implement the agreement, both sides should attempt to change their images and resolve the ambiguities and misunderstandings.

Within this context, public and cultural diplomacy could be used alongside official diplomatic measures. To achieve this goal, the two parties could make use of the fields of cinema, music, academic cooperation, tourism etc. to change the current image. If the world sees Iran’s true image, a peaceful country that believes in coexistence with other countries, security issues like the nuclear program would be settled.

The important point is that, despite having disagreements on human rights issues, a state could represent its peaceful image to the world, similar to the method China is applying to represent its rise as a being peaceful. Soft power is an issue that Zarif is well aware of and it should be considered in his foreign policy agenda.

Translated by: Parisa Farhadi