Manuela Paraipan / Kayhan Barzegar

On 29 October 2011, the Institute for Middle East Strategic Studies (IMESS) with the collaboration of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) held a seminar on "The European Union and the Middle East" in which Ms. Manuela Paraipan, a prominent Journalist from Romania and Dr. Kayhan Barzegar, Director of the IMESS, shared their views on the relations between Europe and the Middle East region and specially Iran. The Institute's resident and visiting fellows, university professors, Ph.D. and Master's students from different universities in Tehran were among the guests.

Focusing on the necessity of putting aside some prevailing views in Iran regarding the Iran-EU relations, Dr. Barzegar at the beginning of the meeting emphasized the necessity of redefining the two sides' relations given the recent developments in the Arab world, as well as the dynamic variables that exist in the Iran-EU relations and that the new situation provides an opportunity to expand mutual relations. He also maintained that some traditional approaches in Iran tend to put the Iran-EU relations  in the context of Iran-US relations and that Iran cannot get to anywhere or reach any workable solutions with the EU in terms of solving its regional and global strategic challenges such as the nuclear issue. Because the EU is too dependent on the U.S. policies when it relates to Iran's issues. Meanwhile, there is a tendency in Iran that perceives the EU as an economic-oriented entity.

Contrary to these views, and referring the EU active role in international institutions and structures, Dr. Barzegar stressed on the two sides' "strategic needs" in establishing stability in the region. "We don't know what would exactly come out from the Arab world's recent political-security developments. Hopefully they do not turn out to be like Iraq… But we know for sure that Iran and the EU have a great interest to establish lasting security and stability in the region and this necessitates the increased bilateral relations." "Europe is sensitive and realistic to political-security issues in the Middle East because they directly relate to EU's interests and security". "In this respect, Iran nuclear program can make more grounds for expanding relations between the two sides" he added. "Some lines of thinking in Iran argue that Iran couldn't benefit from the EU role in the nuclear talks and just wasted its time, but we should acknowledge that the negotiations with the EU could at least prevent the increased tension and minimize the possibility of war between Iran and the United States. This is an opportunity that Iran should take advantage of and continue the negotiations with new initiatives so that the EU can play its mediatory role in the nuclear talks."

The second speaker was Ms. Manuela Paraipan who started by mentioning that there is not a common approach within the European Union toward the Middle Eastern issues and especially Iran. "But increased relations with Iran is of great importance for the Europeans countries from different political-strategic, economic, technological, and cultural aspects" she continued. Referring to the EU's cooperation with the U.S. on imposing the cohesive sanctions on Iran, she maintained that this can not be a workable solution and the two sides should work to find a sustainable solution which can be accepted by both sides. "The increased gap and lack of relations can not lead to sustainable solutions. Staying in the current situation of distrust will cause both sides to lose the opportunities." She also highlighted the importance of "cultural diplomacy" for introducing Iran to the world. "Raising negative perception about Iran is not right and posing negative propaganda by both sides serve to solidify the deep-seated distrust that already exist between the two sides." "…instead the two sides should benefit from each other's role. One way could be focusing on economic cooperation given examples of other trade partners across the world. An the end, she mentioned the importance of the Iran-Romania relations in the context of the European Union and underlined the will of the Romanian government to strengthen political and economic ties with Iran.

At the end of the discussion, the audience raised many questions especially regarding the place of the EU in the Iran-US relations and the EU position on imposing further sanctions on Iran.