Post-nuclear deal Iran: back to the fold of imperialism?

• Author: Nuruzzaman, Mohammed
• Position: COMMENTARY - Essay

On 14 July 2015, Iran and the P5+1 states signed a historic nuclear deal, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to finally end the thirteen-year nuclear standoff between Tehran and Washington. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani branded the JCPOA, "the victory of the people of Iran on the political arena." (1) Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also viewed the deal as a significant step towards bolstering Iran's rights, dignity and independence. Under the terms and conditions of the JCPOA, Iran has agreed to greatly scale back its nuclear program, though not to abrogate its nuclear rights, in exchange for sanctions relief. So, from the Iranian perspective, the deal fits the basic rationale of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that saved Iran from subjugation by the U.S. and restored its full independence in a West-dominated international order. Critics, however, contend that Khamenei was under extreme pressure to get rid of the financial sanctions that had been imposed on Iran, particularly during the tenure of former hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that the deal falls short of being a victory for Iran.

Two important interpretations arise out of Iran's willingness to sign and implement the JCPOA: firstly, the U.S.-led sanctions regime was choking Iran economically so much that the top leadership had to find a way out; and secondly, the lifting of sanctions has facilitated Iran's reintegration into the capitalist global economy, which the late Ayatollah Khomeini castigated as the West's imperialistic blueprint to exploit and dominate oppressed people worldwide, especially in the Muslim world. Khomeini propagated the catchphrase 'neither East, nor West, the Islamic Republic' to initiate a new political course and development model to reduce Iran's structural dependence on the imperialist West. The reality was different, however. Post-revolution Iran, like the now defunct socialist bloc led by the Soviet Union, had to operate within the parameters of the imperialistic capitalist global economy. The current nuclear deal with the P5+1 states may further increase Iran's structural dependence on the imperialist West by accelerating Iranian reintegration into the West-controlled global economy and thus compromising the economic, ideological and philosophical foundations of Khomeini's Islamic Republic. Iran's re-enmeshment with imperialist capitalist relations, facilitated by the JCPOA, pushes Iran deep into imperialism, although it also brings new opportunities for the Iranians to bolster their economic position and political assertiveness, and to enhance their strategic weight in the Middle East. Said differently, Iran, after nearly four decades of revolutionary tempest, is slowly coming back to the fold of imperialism (or neo-imperialism in the modern context). This commentary, in the pages below, pursues and develops this basic contention.

Khomeini and the Goals of the Islamic Revolution

Khomeini galvanized mass support for the 1979 Islamic Revolution by capitalizing on two critical factors: 1) America's domination over Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty, what he branded American imperialism; and 2) the promise of an Islamic utopia, exclusively defined in Islamic religious terms. He viewed Iran-U.S. relations under the last Pahlavi ruler, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979), as Iran's subjugation to American domination and, in turn, projected his revolutionary agenda as a battle of the oppressed against the oppressors. The U.S., as Khomeini saw it, was the number one oppressor of the peoples of the Third World, including the Iranians. Anti-Americanism, in short, became the central pillar of Khomeini's revolutionary activities throughout the decades of the 1960s and 1970s as well as in the post-revolution period.

To free the oppressed Iranians from America's imperialistic clutches, Khomeini crafted the strategy of the Iranian Revolution not in Marxist or liberal terms but in Islamic religious dictates. While the French, Russian or Chinese revolutions were largely propelled by the European Enlightenment ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity or the secular spirit of liberation from oppressive political and economic systems, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, some analysts say, developed around Shia ideas of enduring sufferings, martyrdom, and opposition to Pahlavi dynastic rule based on issues of Iran's Islamic norms, values and identity. Khomeini called for "independence, freedom and the Islamic Republic" to install a clergy-led government and reinitiate an independent course for Iran in domestic and global affairs. As he understood and explained it, the concept of independence embodied two significant elements -(1) rejection of the ideological supremacy of both the East and the West, and a simultaneous prioritization of Islamic ideological precepts to guide domestic governance and external relations; and, (2) the elimination of Western imperialistic influence, especially American dominance, from Iran and the Muslim world at large.

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Khomeini quite realized that post-revolution Iran's independence and freedom from American dominance was conditional on achieving economic independence. Economic self-reliance was a sine qua non to get Iran out of the vortex of global imperialism. The economic ideas he offered to guide Iran's development, what one analyst...