Iran, the Middle East, and the World in 2018 from Three Perspectives

As we approach Tuesday, January 1, the first day of the year 2019, we reflect on the past year. In the program 'Perspectives', we review the events of the past year twice a year - once at the end of the Gregorian year and again at the end of the Persian calendar year. Rasool Nafisi (Washington, USA), Reza Taghizadeh (Glasgow, UK), and Ali Sadrzadeh (Frankfurt, Germany) are three guest analysts in the last episode of 'Perspectives' in 2018, where they selected and analyzed the events they believe were most impactful in Iran, the Middle East, and the world during this Gregorian year. Rasool Nafisi states that, as usual for the past 40 years, events in Iran in 2018 topped the world's bad news. He selects the deepening economic, social, and political crises, as well as protests from various sectors including workers and teachers, as the most significant events in Iran. According to Nafisi, actions such as appointing an elderly individual like Ahmad Jannati to new positions will also affect the distrust that intensified between the government and society in 2018, impacting the Iranian government and its subsequent mechanisms. Reza Taghizadeh considers the increasing legitimacy crisis, rising corruption, and the protests of last December, alongside the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, as the most important news from Iran. During the tenure of the previous U.S. president, the nuclear agreement with Iran had granted a kind of political legitimacy to the Islamic Republic in the international community, which Tehran had economically benefited from. However, with the U.S. exit from the JCPOA in 2018, the Islamic Republic of Iran was delegitimized, and economic benefits were cut off, leading to the protests of last December, which, according to this analyst, continued until the end of 2018. Ali Sadrzadeh identifies the most important event of 2018 in Iran as President Hassan Rouhani's shift to the right, aligning with the leader and the IRGC and security forces. This shift, alongside the U.S. exit from the JCPOA in 2019, will lead the government to make effective decisions that will not be limited to the ostentatious celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1979 revolution. Discussions about the possibility of an IRGC coup and warnings about enemy plans for 1398 also heated up towards the end of the year. In terms of Middle Eastern events, Rasool Nafisi highlights the rapprochement and alliance between Saudi Arabia and its allies with Israel, which he attributes to the policies of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The destruction of ISIS, the potential confrontation between Turkey and Syria, and the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, along with the dismemberment of his body and its consequences, were also significant events for the Saudi royal family in 2018, according to this analyst. Reza Taghizadeh points to several international events such as the economic war between the U.S. and China and the meeting of U.S. and North Korean leaders, emphasizing the importance and prominence of fake news in the Middle East, believing that the highlighting of Khashoggi's murder was exaggerated. The consequences of this incident led to the dismissal of Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, and his replacement with a more experienced diplomat, according to Taghizadeh. Another important news was Donald Trump's surprise visit to Iraq and his emphasis that the U.S. would not withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, alongside rumors of a potential military attack on Iran. In contrast to Taghizadeh, Ali Sadrzadeh believes that the coverage of Khashoggi's murder was appropriate and proportional. According to this analyst, the murder of a journalist of the stature of The Washington Post (which has a history of forcing Richard Nixon to resign) and its international ramifications were among the impactful events in the Middle East in 2018, alongside the reduction of warfare and tensions in Syria and Yemen, and what Sadrzadeh calls 'Saudi Arabia's defeat in Yemen'. For detailed interpretations and analyses, as well as selected global events from the perspectives of all three analysts, listen to the audio file where the divergent and conflicting viewpoints are more pronounced, and the differences in opinions sometimes take on a debate-like quality. We invite you to listen to this roundtable and review the more captivating news events of 2018 from three different perspectives.