Being Assertive

I was surprised. Of course there was no one to remind me that “you have no right to be surprised. It’s none of your business who sits at the head of the oldest and most respected ministry in this country –about 180 years old- which has experienced the service of many venerable figures. You are done with your service, and have never been on the map in this ministry.

Who are you? You are not politically conscious and cannot distinguish the traditional right from neo-Principlists. Why are you meddling in serious business? If you had learned the use of the famous Arabic saying al-khair-u fi ma vaqa [“the best is what happens now”] and if you knew what the famous rhyme “hundreds of blessings that this came and hundreds of laments that that left” would imply that you were doing much better.

Anyway, whoever I am, I’m at least an Iranian citizen. I’m not stripped of my national pride. I believed that the foreign ministry was my second home once. I think, therefore I am—and I have the right to write.

With all is weaknesses, the foreign ministry is still a department respected by the people. On the international scene, it is still known as the symbol of a great country with a long history.

I have no experience with Mottaki and his record in the foreign ministry; neither through personal contact nor through reliable media, but my personal experience tells me that Mottaki is a patient man.

The appointment of Ali-Akbar Salehi, present chairman of the Iranian Organization of Atomic Energy—as the temporary manager of the department, and possibly as the next foreign minister—as the first technocrat in the post-Revolution years and the seventy-first foreign minister of the country, of course conveys a message that needs serious contemplation.

Right now, though, I want to talk about the manner of Mottaki’s dismissal and Salehi’s appointment. I’m not defending or rejecting the record of either of these two. According to the constitution, no one has the right rescind the president’s decision in choosing members of his cabinet, subject to Majles approval, of course. Maybe Ahmadinejad has his own rationale.

Questions are formed in the minds of those not aware of backstage developments. The dignity of our foreign minister has not been observed: he has been dismissed while visiting Africa to convey a message from Ahmadinejad. Was it this urgent? Couldn’t Ahmadinejad wait 48 hours and convince Mottaki to guise his dismissal as a resignation?

For an ordinary citizen abroad, this type of humiliating behavior, even for an inefficient minister, is anything but tolerable. This will degrade Iranian consulates and diplomatic agencies for Iranian and foreign citizens. Ambassadors will lose their prestige and the foreign ministry will become weaker than ever. Differences in tactics may always exist, but no great country will insist on dismissing its foreign minister in the most brazen way.

Four or five years ago, I visited the foreign ministry because of some retirement issues. Mistreatment by one of the clerks made me promise myself to never return to the ministry, even for my own rights. When I found out how Mottaki has been dealt with during the past four years, I think I’ve been too assertive. 

* Mohammad-Reza Dabiri is a former Iranian diplomat serving in Iran’s embassies in the United Nations and France.