More about Amirabdollahian, Iran president’s pick for next FM?

Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has picked Hossein Amirabdollahian as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. If he manages to win the Parliament’s vote of confidence and become the next foreign minister, young and determined as he is, one might hope to see more efforts taken in line with implementing the Establishment’s policies. 

Despite perhaps appearing young for the position, he is experienced enough for this position to lead the country’s foreign policy where it is intended to, with minimum error. 

Dr. Amirabdollahian is a graduate of political science at all university levels and received his doctorate in international relations. Accordingly, he is fully acquainted with the theories of political science and political knowledge, which is not only an advantage but also a necessity for a foreign minister. That is why he has an advantage over many Iranian foreign ministers before him.

Amirabdollahian’s thesis and dissertation were both on Iraq, and given his responsibilities in the Iraqi department of the foreign ministry, he has a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the political, religious, and ethnic developments of the neighboring country. This can prove very helpful for Iran’s relations with one of the most important countries in the region, the Arab world, and a member of the Axis of Resistance.

Amirabdollahian was the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Bahrain from 2007 to 2010, where he had the opportunity to pursue his passion for understanding the inner mechanism of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council. Finishing his mission as an ambassador, he took charge at the Persian Gulf Political Administration to further extend his knowledge and experience in this field.

Amirabdollahian became the Director-General of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2006, and then from 2011 to 2016, he was the Deputy Minister of Arab and African Affairs, increasing his expertise in the field at a position just below the minister. During his tenure, more political efforts were made to strengthen the Axis of Resistance and he also extended connections with the West Asian region.

Since 2016, he has been working as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as an advisor to the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, and was the Director-General of International Affairs at the Parliament. His time as an advisor to the Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and serving as Director-General of the International Affairs at the Parliament further increased his experience in a field beyond West Asia. Although he was not yet well-known in the country’s as well as the region’s political arena, he successfully carried out several missions related to fields beyond the West Asian region due to his special genius and abilities.

He was appointed by Dr. Ghalibaf as the head of the secretariat of the International Conference of the Palestinian Intifada, which, allowed him to, in addition to organize the conference, hold communications with various political, religious, and parliamentary figures as well as some officials from a number of countries. 

He also gained more knowledge about the Palestinian issue and formed deeper connections with Palestinian activists and the Resistance while serving as the Secretary-General of the Assembly of Non-Governmental Organizations and Activists in Support of the Freedom of al-Quds. As such, one might expect the country’s public diplomacy regarding Palestine and the Resistance would be pursued more vigorously with him as the next foreign minister. 

Hossein Amir Abdullahian has a set of characteristics that distinguish him from all his former ministers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has served for more than two decades in the most important position at the foreign ministry and he has gained deep knowledge and expertise in this field. 

Supporting Palestine is one of the most important priorities of the Islamic Establishment, which had been pursued seriously by the people and leaders of the Islamic movement even before the victory of the Islamic Revolution. It is natural to expect from the foreign ministry to pursue a more distinguished mission in this area than in others.

However, in some years, the foreign ministry took on more of a passive stance towards the Palestinian issue and the Axis of Resistance, which has caused some concerns. For instance, the recorded remarks by former FM Mohammad Javad Zarif that were published in the Saudi-owned “Iran International” news outlet, showed him as trying to generalize the two poles of the field and politics related to Palestine and the regional developments that were created by him himself and get his own expected results from it. 

This is while the priority of any government in ensuring national interests and security should be to pay attention to the changes in its vital environment; that is, the geography in which it is situated. The vital environment of the Islamic Republic of Iran is West Asia, the developments of which Iran, given its historical and civilizational antiquity, as well as its culture, beliefs, and solidarity, cannot be passive about.

The presence of a belligerent regime officially established as a military garrison of domination in the region, as well as the intervention of the colonial powers in the region and their efforts to restrict the vital environment of the Islamic Republic, require Iran to make the most expenditure in this area. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, must take measures to achieve these vital goals. But as Zarif has admitted, the foreign ministry under his leadership has not been much help in this regard. However, everything that has been achieved so far in various political arenas has been due to the presence and the serious pursuit of Iran’s goals in the region.  

Amirabdollahian, while serving as an advisor to the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament and the head of the Secretariat of the International Conference of the Palestinian Intifada for five years — apart from his trips, meetings, interviews, and statements on Palestine — has the following strategic measures to his name: 

1- Pursuing the passing of a single article on “Quds as the eternal capital of Palestine” in the Iranian Parliament 

2- Pursuing and registering an official document on holding a referendum in the UN 

3- Pursuing the passing into law a bill against the hostile threats of the Zionist regime

4- Establishing a virtual Palestinian embassy 

5- Presenting a plan to inscribe World Al-Quds Day in UNESCO (in progress)

6-  Submitting the Zionist regime’s apartheid plan to the Foreign Policy Commission to solve the issue regarding Iranian athletes’ matches 

7- Serving as managing director and editor-in-chief for the multilingual quarterly journal of Palestinian Strategic Discourse 

8- Holding three extraordinary meetings of the PUIC Palestine Committee

9- Holding a webinar on Palestine for Inter-Parliamentary speakers 

10- Serving as secretary of the Political and International Affairs Committee at the Society for the Defence of Palestinian Nation, and a founding member of the International Union of Adolescents and Youth Against Occupation 

By: Ahmadreza Rouhollah Zad