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Abstract

After the revolution, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was marginalised. With Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, started a new era during which the oil revenues were crucial. Besides the United States, the other industrial countries were customers of Iran, and this entailed foreign policies that should not endanger the oil extraction and selling in the international market. The death of Khomeyni opened up a new period in Iranian foreign policies, but the actual policy shift took place with Khatami: Arab countries were courted and the suspicion of Iranian hegemony overcame in the region. Relationships between Iran, Seoudi Arabia and the other countries, with the exception of Iraq, knew a notable warming up, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks pushed Iran and Seoudi Arabia towards a closer co-operation. Fearing a U.S. intervention in Iran after Iraq, the Iranian Conservatives are more and more tempted to end up the Reformists' power in order to talk directly with Washington. Iran power's dual structure is in an acute state of crisis, partially due to internal factors and to the recent mutations in international relations. Iranian foreign policy has to be considered as a situation where the Reformists' grip is challenged by new actors like Rafsandjani, whose influence cannot be measured up by his own position within the State but by his political influence after 9/11.

Farhad Khosrokhavar is Director of Studies at the Center of Analysis and Sociologic Interventions (CADIS) within the School of High Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris).
(This article is published in French only. Original title: 'La politique étrangère de l'Iran: de la révolution à l'axe du Mal'.)