Many Iranians Critical Of Long-Term China, Russia Deals
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
Many Iranian have been expressing resentment over a 25-year cooperation agreement with China and a proposed 20-year deal with Russia, saying it is a sell-out.
Iran International
Many Iranian have been expressing resentment over a 25-year cooperation agreement with China and a proposed 20-year deal with Russia, saying it is a sell-out.
Although Iran has not revealed the details of the agreement with China and what it will entail in political, economic and military terms, some social media users go as far as claiming that the Islamic Republic is "selling out the country and its people" to China and Russia.
Not only politicians and the reformist media, but also many ordinary Iranians are wary of the consequences of too much reliance on the two powers, without simultaneously improving relations with the West to create a balance.
Others are wary of Russia's proactive role in the ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna and insist that Iran should directly negotiate with the US instead of allowing the interference of mediators like Russia.
"It is true that striking a deal with China is not a problem, but such agreements should not be limited to China and Russia. There should be long-term agreements with China and Russia as well as the United States and Europe to create a balance in foreign relations and reap the political and economic benefits of such balance for the nation," one Twitterati opined Sunday.
A man holding a sign in Iran that says, "Iran not for sale - China, Russia get lost".
Many also say they do not believe that China and Russia can be considered as Iran's strategic allies and partners. As permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia and China did not block punitive UN sanctions resolutions over Iran's nuclear program a decade ago. "A sanctioned Iran is a gold mine for them," another Twitterati wroteSunday.
Some ordinary Iranians who are opposed to long-term deals with the two Eastern powers have been posting photos of themselves with posters expressing their disapproval. Some have taken their photos in front of government buildings and other landmark buildings to prove that they are posting from inside Iran, not from foreign countries as officials often claim, to discredit domestic critics.
Hardliners claim that closer economic and political relations with the East and Asian countries, which Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has promulgated with the catchphrase "Looking East", will help Iran's development and strengthen it against Western powers, particularly the United States. Since 2018, and Khamenei's advocation of the policy, "Looking East" has become one of the centerpieces of a 'revolutionary economy' which hardliners have been hard at work to theorize.
Although Iranian officials for months said a 20-year strategic agreement with Russia had entered the final stages of drafting and even been almost finalized, the spokesman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said Sunday that signing an agreement will not be on the agenda of President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Moscow this month.Such an agreement requires further investigation and preparations, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh-Meshkini told Fars news agency, and added that the two sides will discuss the preliminaries of the agreement during the visit.
The Russian side has not shown any enthusiasm about the deal sought by Iran's hardliners although the two countries had a 20-year agreement which expired.
According to an opinion survey by Gamaan polling agency in the Netherlands with a sample population of over 20,000 Iranians living inside Iran that was published October 27, 65 percent of respondents had a negative view of China and Russia. In the same survey 40 percent said they viewed the United States negatively.
The highly acclaimed work, My Uncle Napoleon, was published in the early 1970s and was made into an extremely successful TV series. It was banned after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 but is still among the most sought after underground works of literature and film in Iran.
In Pezeshkad's novel set at the onset of the Second World War in Tehran, the small local wars that the main character of the book, a low-ranking officer once fought, gradually evolve into great wars against the British on par with the Napoleonic Wars. Uncle Napoleon's orderly, the simple and uneducated Mash Ghasem, not only begins to believe, or pretend to believe in the stories of Uncle Napoleon's heroic wars against the British, but also increasingly attempts to weave stories of his own heroism into it but the imaginary adventures only make the delusional patriarch the laughingstock of the family.
Pezeshkzad, a former French-educated judge and diplomat, captured the imagination of Iranian readers with his most vivid characters in a manner that no other contemporary author has. There is almost no one in Iran who is not familiar with his characters and its many famous catchphrases including, "It's the work of the British."
The main character of My Uncle Napoleon has gradually come into believing his own stories, identifying himself with Napoleon, and living in constant fear of British plots to kill, or failing that, to dishonor and discredit him. "It's the work of the British", the old man will say in the face of any mishap that befalls him or his family. Even a sex scandal involving a niece of the family in Uncle Napoleon's delusional mind, is cited as proof that there is a British conspiracy against him.
The fame of the book and its catchphrase is such that British diplomats in Iran in the years following the publication of the book came to know about it probably within the first few days from their arrival. Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw even took inspiration from it to write a book entitled "The English Job: Understanding Iran and Why It Distrusts Britain".
Amongst British diplomats, there’s a poignant joke that ‘Iran is the only country in the world which still regards the United Kingdom as a superpower’. For many Iranians, it’s not a joke at all," an introduction to Straw's book said.
Nearly two centuries of Iranian politics, particularly the 19th century, was deeply influenced by the British-Russian embassies and their rivalries. Many Iranians still see the hand of the British in everything. Probably with the historical fear of the Iranians toward the British in mind, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2009 cast the blame for nationwide unrest following a disputed election on the British government. Hardliners claimed the British were behind the "sedition" against the Islamic
Pezeshkzad never singled out a real-life inspiration for the pathetic, delusional and bullying character who the children of the family including the narrator always called Uncle Napoleon amongst themselves. In a speech at the University of California, Los Angeles, Pezeshkad said the character originated in his memories of his childhood when grownups would indiscriminately label most politicians as "British lackeys".
Pezeshkzad made every episode of love or feud in Uncle Napoleon's family into funny, yet often very tender, narratives. His book, he told BBC Persian years ago, was inspired by the story of his own naive teenage love and memories from his own extended family. Pezeshkzad's book has been translated into several European languages including English.