Middle East diplomacy put to test
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hands President Park Geun-hye his microphone after her mike failed during a joint press conference held after their summit at Saadabad Palace in Tehran, Monday. / Yonhap
Korea urged to seek balancing role between Saudi, Iran
By Yi Whan-woo
South Korea needs to pursue balanced diplomacy in the Middle East, said analysts Monday with President Park Geun-hye currently in Tehran amid escalating rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It’s hoped that Park’s visit to Tehran will result not only in huge economic benefits for Seoul, but will also be a help in dealing with North Korea. However, it could put Korea’s ties with Saudi Arabia and other friendly nations to the test.
“We should join the rush to Iran while bolstering ties with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations led by Sunni Muslims,” said In Nam-sik, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.
“Park’s visit to Iran could be wrongly interpreted as South Korea turning its back on Saudi Arabia. Korea should seek understanding from this and continue to enhance economic cooperation with the country.”
Park is the first South Korean leader to visit Iran since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1962.
But they have only been engaged in limited trading activities and had no political ties due to the now-scrapped U.S.-led international sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea and Iran have, in general, had positive relations over the past decades, with suspicions that they may have cooperated on their respective nuclear programs.
Both countries were once branded as the “axis of evil” countries by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 for their pursuance of weapons of mass destruction.
And a landmark agreement between Iran and the U.S., China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Germany leaves North Korea as the only country under U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions for continuing to seek nuclear arms.
“In this climate, we need to ensure we continue to build our friendship with Iran consistently so that North Korea will feel further isolated,” In said. “I don’t think we can directly ask Iran to put any pressure on North Korea and give up its nuclear ambitions. But Pyongyang will certainly be under mounting pressure if we continue to show that Seoul and Iran have joined forces on diplomatic grounds.”
Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University, said underscoring implementation of the latest UNSC resolution against North Korea in the Seoul-Tehran dialogues in the future will be critical for Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
“Iran wants to improve its economy with other countries and it obviously would not want to draw international attention by violating the U.N. sanctions as one of North Korea’s few remaining friends,” Park said.
Prof. In said bolstering economic cooperation with Iran will be critical to prevent Iran to return to its nuclear program.
“There are still groups of conservative reactionaries, such as the Revolutionary Guards, who are against their President Hassan Rouhani,” he said. He cited that Rouhani is a moderate and has sought to improve the country’s relations with the U.S. and open the country’s doors to the outside world.
“And capital investment into Iran and ensuring development of the country’s infrastructure will be important to help its economy and prevent conservatives from instigating the public to rise against the government and pursue nuclear ambitions again,” he said.
Iran-Saudi rivalry
The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia could be a challenge to the Park government. Islam’s two big sects, the Sunni and the Shia, have engaged in persistent sectarian violence against each other.
The majority of the Muslims worldwide, including Saudi Arabia and other gulf states, are Sunnis while the Shiites dominate in Iran.
Experts advise avoiding any sectarian disputes while helping Saudi Arabia make an economic recovery, after it was hit by low oil prices.
Saudi Arabia accounts for 31.6 percent of South Korea’s oil imports in the latest data from 2014.
It was also a key country involved in South Korea’s “Middle East boom” in the 1970s and 80s, during which South Korea enterprises, many of them construction firms, run business there and contributed to Seoul’s rapid economic growth.