The new leadership of Iran that came to power as a result of the 1978-9 Revolution offered the country a new model of governance and development that, as demonstrated in the previous chapter, was based on romantic principles often distant from realities. Consequently, the decade after the Iranian revolution of 1978-9 became the period of ‘Islamic experiment’ when the authorities of the newly born republic tried to marry their ideological concepts with the real world. Initially, the foreign policy of Iran was also supposed to be built on the doctrine of Islamic governance that, apart from the spread of the Islamic revolution, implied a greater emphasis on the development of bilateral relations with Muslim countries and developing countries that did not belong to either communist or ‘capitalist’ camps. This principle found its reflection in the famous motto ‘neither Eastern nor Western but Islamic Republic’ that until now decorates one of the buildings of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the same time, Iran was expected to develop its economy in line with the ‘touhid’ (monotheistic) economic model that implied not only the creation of a social-oriented economy but the achievement of self-sufficiency that would allow the country to cut its dependence on both the developed countries and the Soviet camp. In practice, this idealistic vision of Iranian foreign relations did not survive for long. International realities swiftly proved to the Iranian leadership that if they wanted to stay in power, a more pragmatic approach should be adopted. As a result, by the mid- 1980s, Tehran was compelled to start restoring those relations with the West and Soviets that were cut in the first years after the revolution. Three key factors were responsible:

(a) the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-8) and the failure to export the Islamic revolution abroad. The lack of consumer goods, munitions and arms soon required the restoration of Iranian ties with the outside world;

(b) the continuation of the confrontation between the USSR and the US that still saw Iran as one of the fronts of the struggle between the two political systems. Iran remained jammed against its will between the great powers, as before in revolution;