November 15-2013
HASLUND. . . Danish diplomat
With no embassy in Tehran, the United States scours all over the world for informed analysis of Iran. According to a WikiLeaks cable, a US diplomat in Iceland was even assigned to interview the new Danish ambassador in Iceland because he had just finished three years as Denmark’s ambassador in Tehran.
The interview took place in 2009, and the ambassador basically said that Ahmadi-nejad wasn’t as bad as he looked to the outside world and the Reformists weren’t as good as they look abroad.
US Charge D’Affaires Sam Watson reported to Washington that “newly arrived” Danish Ambassador Soren Haslund described an Islamic Republic neither as radical as stated under Ahmadi-nejad, nor as open as the West might hope under a reformist regime.
Watson cabled: “There is, Haslund warned, a tendency by the West to attribute huge differences to those in power and those in the opposition when, in fact, they are all part of the same small group. There is no true opposition faction in Iran, he opined, really only ‘nuances of black’ exist.”
The American diplomat went on to report the Dane’s views of Iranian culture and foreign policy:
“According to Haslund, Iranians consider themselves religiously, linguistically and ethnically superior to their neighbors. This Persian arrogance, he argued, plays a large role in Iran’s foreign policy. Iran tends to use proxies and money to accomplish its regional goals, he said, and would prefer not to interact with its neighbors face-to-face.
“Syria, he had heard, was receiving one billion dollars to act as just such a proxy for Iran in what he termed a marriage of convenience between the two countries.” This was two years before Syria erupted in civil war and became very dependent on Tehran.
“Haslund suggested that Turkey, as a secular country, might potentially serve as a regional ally for Iran. Somewhat surprisingly, he also suggested that Israel could eventually become a regional ally. The Iranians, he said, have no particular hatred for Israel and the approximately 30,000 Jews that live in the country are treated well.”
The Dane suggested that—in spite of the revolution and past US support for the Shah—the Islamic Republic would welcome detente with the Great Satan. He also said American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan wasn’t entirely unwelcome in Tehran:
“Most of the Iranians he met viewed America as the most natural candidate to become a long-term global ally,” the US diplomat reported. “For historical reasons, he suggested, Iran has a deep mistrust of the British and Russians. America, however, is viewed in a different light.
“The Iranians, he joked, have noticed who is responsible for deposing of Sadam [sic] Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It does not hurt the United States’ reputation in Iran, he said, to be responsible for having removed two of the country’s greatest enemies,” the cable said.