Javad Zarif: The Time for a Paradigm Shift Is Now

Former Iranian foreign minister outlines path for diplomacy.

By Mohammad Javad Zarif, an associate professor of global studies at the University of Tehran and the founder and president of Possibilities Architects: Inspiring Ascending Beyond, a nongovernmental Iranian think tank.

West Asia stands at a perilous inflection point. The horrors unfolding in Gaza, the recent aggression directed at Iran but repelled by the Iranian people and its armed forces, and the continued destabilization of Syria illustrate in stark terms that for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his global enablers, the only so-called existential threat is actually peace and quiet. This pairing for Israel of internal apartheid and perpetual regional conflict threatens the very foundations of the regional and global orders.

While strong defense is necessary, an enduring solution demands a bold diplomatic initiative, a historic shift for Iran and the region from a deeply ingrained threat paradigm to an empowering possibilities paradigm, including: expansion of ties with neighbors and global south countries, a new regional partnership among Muslim West Asia, and a renewed dialogue with Europe and the United States.

For too long now, nations in the region have been trapped in cycles of conflict and missed opportunities. Forging a different future requires vision, courage, and a conscious decision to break free from historical determinism. For Iran, this shift begins domestically and radiates outward into its neighborhood.

Having been able to demonstrate that it is not easy prey and can hold its own against two nuclear-armed aggressors, Iran has the capacity to make this critical transition from an approach centered on confronting perpetual threats to one focused on exploiting opportunities. It is not only feasible but profoundly in the interest of Iran, the region, and the global community.

Achieving it necessitates unwavering domestic resolve and external noninterference; driven not necessarily by morality or international law, but simply by self-interest.

Iran’s foremost possibility resides in its people. Millennia of history testify to their extraordinary resilience. Invaders have occupied Iranian land, but they were invariably absorbed into the enduring culture and were never able to impose their values on the Iranian people.

This resilience is the decisive factor confounding ostensibly superior foes, from Iraq’s invasion in 1980 (backed by global powers) to the recent gambits of Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. It is why four decades of so-called maximum pressure and crippling sanctions have failed to achieve their objectives.

Despite unprecedented global restrictions—from U.N. Security Council resolutions to export restrictions deliberately designed to stifle Iran’s technological advancement—the Iranian people have indigenously propelled scientific and technological progress, particularly in defense and nuclear energy. Thus, Iranian people are not subjects to be constrained but the nation’s paramount asset to be empowered, nurtured, and allowed to flourish.

Iran’s second vital pillar of possibility is its neighborhood. With borders on 15 nations, Iran sits at a unique Eurasian crossroads. More significantly, the region shares deep, unbreakable historical and cultural ties woven over centuries by Iranian poets, mystics, philosophers, and scientists. These connections have endured empires, invasions, and turmoil.

Yet real regional cooperation has remained elusive. In my decades as an Iranian diplomat, I’ve participated in developing initiatives that were consistently undermined by a paradigm of suspicion and threats.

From proposals for Persian Gulf security during the Iran-Iraq War, to aborted cooperation declarations with tour neighbors in the southern coast of the Persian Gulf in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and later initiatives like a regional dialogue forum, a non-aggression pact, the Hormuz Peace Endeavor, the Muslim West Asian Dialogue Association, and the most recent Middle East Network for Atomic Research and Advancement, all these initiatives faltered due to mutual mistrust.

But recent escalations by Israel have created a new awareness of shared vulnerability in the region. There is now a crucial window of opportunity.

Iran, alongside Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—potentially expanding to Pakistan, Central Asia, and the Caucasus—must seize this moment.

Under a U.N. umbrella, we can forge a new compact based on a strategic pivot from fragmentation to one of synergy. Shared energy corridors, robust nonproliferation and nuclear cooperation frameworks, economic cooperation, and cultural unity can become the engines of shared prosperity.

Through the prism of this possibilities paradigm, Iran and even Russia and Turkey can view the recent agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington not as a threat, but as an opportunity—a chance to revive the previously proposed transit cooperation in the Caucasus between Iran, Russia, and Turkey, together with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

The new agreement provides a global context that makes our 2019 regional initiative more feasible and sustainable. And it will provide unique investment opportunities for the private sector in the United States and other countries.

The third pillar, involving global diplomacy, is perhaps the most challenging for Iran given its disillusionment over past experiences. Yet I firmly believe Iran and the international community share an existential interest in pushing past those experiences and forging a different future.

Iran has made significant contributions to global stability over the decades. As a U.N. founding member, it sponsored landmark initiatives: the 1974 proposal for a Middle East Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, the 1997 “Dialogue Among Civilizations,” and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Tragically, the world’s major powers have consistently undermined these Iranian overtures.

The historical pattern is stark: The West’s aggressive response to Iran’s 1951 oil nationalization, culminating in the 1953 coup; its support for Saddam Hussein’s aggression against Iran in 1980; its actions enabling Israel to possess hundreds of nuclear warheads; its labeling of Iran as part of an “axis of evil” in 2002, despite Iranian cooperation post-9/11; and the relentless disinformation campaign against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

Ironically, that assault has been led by Israel, which has refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and is known to have secretly developed a large nuclear arsenal.