On February 11th, Iran will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "This event has changed the situation in the region, in global politics, in the Islamic and Arab-Muslim worlds, the balance of the global political forces," the head researcher at the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Boris Dolgov, said.
"As a result of this Islamic revolution, a new state emerged that proposed a new path of development. The principles laid down by Khomeini and his supporters, on which Iran was built, are relevant today as well. The state is developing despite the unprecedented external pressure from the US and its allies. Iran became a regional center of power, affecting global politics. Iranian leaders managed to resist external pressure, sanctions, unite society, build the economy that was able to develop dynamically. In Iran, today, there are no large-scale problems that we observe even in the developed democratic countries, such as the "yellow jackets" movement in France,” Boris Dolgov said.
“Historians compare the revolution in Iran with the 1917 revolution in Russia. After the Islamic revolution in Iran, the international situation underwent a drastic, concrete and tough change. If there had not been a revolution in Iran, the current situation in the world would be completely different. The IRI leadership had changed the foreign policy course in a tough manner. If the course remained the same, the forces that opposed the Islamic regime, the country's leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, could receive additional support from the West, which could lead to a change of the Islamic regime, ” the senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Near and Middle East at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Irina Fedorova, said.
According to her, at that time, Iran’s foreign policy was characterized by the mottos of the struggle of oppressed against oppressors all over the world and the export of the Islamic revolution for these purposes: “This export of revolution and the struggle took place not only at the diplomatic level. Iran supported pro-Shiite groups in Arab countries, provided them with military support, which led to the unification of many Arab states on the anti-Iranian basis and creation of various unions of Arab states, in particular, the Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Iran supported and participated in the creation of such a powerful grouping as Hezbollah."
Irina Fedorova believes that anti-Americanism, which was characteristic of the regime that came to power in Iran, radically changed the system of relations with the United States: "Under the Shah, the United States defined Iran’s foreign policy by being the country’s ally. Under the Islamic Republic of Iran, the US also defines Iran’s foreign policy by being the largest, most serious force that opposes the country in the international arena. The influence of the United States remains the same. " According to the expert, the anti-Americanism led to the emergence of Carter’s doctrine: “It became possible to use the American military forces to protect US national interests in South-West Asia. This led to a sharp increase of the US military presence in the region.”
Speaking about the relations of modern Iran with Russia and Turkey, the head of the Oriental Languages Department of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Turkologist Aslambek Mozloev noted: “It was possible to pave the first trails to the regional cooperation between Turkey and Iran due to the mediation of the Russian Federation. This is a very serious achievement. The historical contradictions between Turkey and Iran have not gone away. However, Russia, Iran and Turkey have identified for themselves the issues that allow removing contradictions. Once, the Iranian nuclear problem could not be solved through Ankara’s mediation, since Turkey was still not ready to get rid of the American protectorate, and Iran always felt that the US was behind Turkey. Today the situation is changing. Thus, on February 14th, the next meeting of the Astana troika that replaced the UN Institute solving the Syrian problem will take place. Russia's mediation has allowed both Iran and Turkey to rise to the level of the global players.”
