Diplomat refrain from office work: Dr. Ahmad Sobhani

Foreign diplomats to Iran have a unique position in Iran. Beside their political role as representative of their Sate they could play a significant role in strengthening the relations of their country with Iran. Accordingly, they could change the public and official attitude toward a country. To evaluate the issue, we held an interview with one of the most prominent Iranian diplomat Dr. Ahmad Sobhani

What advice do you have for foreign diplomats working in Iran, especially the diplomats of Latin America, for improvement of economic and cultural relations with the country? Do you think that these diplomats are fully aware of Iran’s economic and cultural capacities?

I recommend all my foreign colleagues refraining “office” work. In order to be fully acquainted with Iran and its capacities, they should travel around the capital and then to the whole country to closely see the potential capabilities of Iran. This issue is not a one-way support but a win-win process. I also recommend foreign ambassadors to be further familiarized with unique potentialities of the private sector. Currently, I am working on establishment of a new structure through which the ambassadors of Latin America region could better realize Iran. They are the country’s watch and could clearly reflect Iran capacities. Import and export is not only to transfer goods but to transfer technical knowledge and cooperate in education and some other fields. However, this approach is the duty of our ambassadors to other countries. They have to avoid office work, too. Presently, diplomatic relations have changed in a way that an ambassador, beside delivery of political messages has many other responsibilities. An ambassador is the representative of his own country in all fields. He must meticulously see and realize the capacities to be able to strengthen the economic ties.

Did the existing economic capacities of Latin America revive Iran’s relation with countries of this region, such as Venezuela and Mexico?

I believe that in our relation with the countries of Latin America, either in   Technical -Engineering services or in using existing service of the region, we have demonstrated very limited capacities. Basically, Latin America region hosts many immigrants. Most of its residents are immigrants who live there for two, three, or four generations. Therefore, these societies are multi-cultural and hosting new cultures. Those who can enhance the dynamic of these societies are welcomed and accepted with not too much capital. Accordingly, investment and immigration to Latin America region is easy. Iranian skilled workforces could produce brilliant performance in these regions individually and collectively. The tiny Iranian minority of these countries are well-reputed. We have carried out some major projects in these regions. A considerable number of projects were fairly successful, some provided relative success, and unfortunately some other have shown lower-than-expected results that were due to excessive politicization of these projects. Regrettably, though mostly fruitful, after the tenth government some political characters tend to belittle the positive services of the State. This capacity is also applied to the other countries. Although recession experienced for a short time, I believe that by increasing new ongoing capacities, economic relation and development of capacities will improve in these regions. Definitely, the private sector will be the main actor of this field.

Over the past few years, Iran’s approach to Latin American countries was mostly political. As you mentioned earlier, economic  space is affected by political space. How could Iran interact more economically with Latin American countries?

The eighth government launched the Latin America’s relations for the first time. Many of our joint projects were started during Mr. Khatami’s   administration in this region. During Mr. Ahmadinejad’s  presidency, we witnessed a special attention to this region, especially to the aligned countries. Despite existing political will, however, Ahmadinejad’s executive and economic sectors were unfortunately unable to take up the opportunities. In the present State, the performance of the economic sector is more professional. For example Vice president Mr.Jahangiri who was previously the industry minister. He was the main negotiator of many undertaken projects of Iran in Venezuela. Or the present industry minister Mr. Nematzadeh, was fully involved and had a highly professional performance in many projects. I had a meeting with Mr. Nematzadeh, yesterday. He was pursuing one of the Latin America projects and forced the related sections to accelerate the process. He did the follow up process great, professional and determined, and was totally aware of technical and economic issues. Having seen these procedures, I fervently believe that our underlying economic relations with Latin America will be more plausible and will follow a more reasonable trend in the new State. Although I do not want to throw Ahmadinejad’s attempts into question, I believe that there was special attention in tenth government but the results were not as much as the energy consumed and the executive sections did not implement the president’s will.

Iran has remarkable capacity and could offer excellent cooperation with Latin American countries in oil and gas exploration and exploitation. Do you think we have been able to offer a program in this field?

Such relation must be win-win. Oil and gas is not an exception. while all programs are assigned to public sector, I cannot be very optimistic about the future of petrochemical relations of Iran and Latin America region. But we could obtain positive results if we transfer these responsibilities to the private sector with the fully support of the State. I hope that the ministry of oil express more support for private sector. This could be a win-win plan for both the State and the private sector.