Iran Needs a New Face at the UN
By all indications, Iran's international diplomacy at the United Nations needs an immediate uplift through a change of the top post, currently filled by Saeid Iravani, a leftover from the previous administration, who is arguably one of the weakest diplomats to ever represent Iran at the world organization.
As Iran is about to be hit with the snapback UN sanctions, thanks in part to a dreadful Iranian diplomacy, the yawning 'business as usual' must give way to an energetic search for a dynamic, articular, and savvy new permanent representative who, unlike Iravani, does not invoke the image of hardline Raisi and his bygone era, but rather the moderate sensibility of President Pezeshkian.
It would be one thing if Iravani could take credit for any successful diplomacy during his term, fact of the matter he cannot, recalling his fiery speeches and warnings of a "wider war" echoing the former foreign minister Abdollahian, his exhortation of Hezbollah to fight on until Israel stops its offensive in Gaza, and we have seen the terrible consequences and the expressed disappointment of Hezbollah at Iran's unmet promises to come to Hezbollah's assistance etc. Not only that, with his poor command of English, Iravani was a failure in acting as a leading voice of public diplomacy for Iran and, hence, Iran's soft power diplomacy essentially came to a grinding halt during his tenure. If diplomacy is the art of persuasion, then little of that can be observed at Iran's mission to UN nowadays.
It is, indeed, rather baffling why Iravani has not been replaced by another diplomat who reflects the modus operandi of the president. Iran needs a sober reassessment of its diplomacy at the world stage today, notwithstanding the imminent resumption of UN sanctions against Iran, that are bound to make life drastically more difficult for the Iranian people. Sadly, Iran has a political system that often rewards failure and sacrifices talent for the sake of ideological loyalty. A wholesale shakeup of Iranian diplomacy is called for if Iran wishes to exit the new chapter in offing of international isolation, one that places a high premium on public diplomacy and the utility of soft power. But, none of that seems to be i the cards right now, as a result of which Iranian diplomacy suffers from an endemic malaise, one that might be institutional in nature and eats at the core of Iran's national interests. In a word, Iran's diplomacy is marked today with lack of boldness, dynamism, energetic imagination, and the kind of charmed offensive necessary to win over potential allies and to disarm the critics. This, in turn, requires the ability for self-reflection and self-criticism, in order to draw the precious lessons from failures, which have been sadly plentiful in nature in the past couple of years, again due in part to the absence of dexterous diplomatic hands, particularly at the top posts abroad, first and foremost at the UN, where a great deal more public visibility by Iran's top diplomat is called for than has been the case in the past few years.
Ambassador Iravani must be replaced, the sooner the better. His resume speaks volumes of a recurrent pattern of sub-optimal performance, to put it mildly, that has in turn contributed to a whole slew of recent setbacks for Iran at the international level. Iran today can ill-afford business as usual and winds of change must sweep the country's diplomacy.