The German government is accused of selling weapons and security systems to dictatorial regimes and supporting them against democracy calls of their nations, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

The most important question now facing Iran’s foreign policy is what strategy has the country formulated in order to get linked to a Middle East which is defined by such new coordinate? Does our foreign policy actually have a say and enough influence in order to revive Iran’s regional standing? It is obvious that in view of power equations in the region, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt are three powers and three main players in the Middle East region and the entire world of Islam.

It will not be unexpected for Shanghai Cooperation Organization to gradually change from an organization with purely economic functions to an organization with military and security functions. In that case, willingly or unwillingly, Russia and China would have created an organization which is the antithesis of the NATO both in nature and identity. As a result, the present and future observer states will have to either become full members of the changed Shanghai Cooperation Organization or leave it.

Failure of major political parties in recent Greek election, increased number of votes won by radical right-wing parties in French election, and unexpected success of such newly emerged parties as Germany’s Pirate Party (in Helswig province and Nordrhein-Westfalen province which is Germany’s biggest province) in parallel to failure of Germany’s Christian Democrat Party, which has been unprecedented following the World War II, as well as continuation of popular protests in Italy, are all telltale signs of disillusionment of the European people with classic and traditional parties.

The latest round of negotiations between Iran and group P5+1 – including the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany – on Tehran’s nuclear activities, did not proceed as expected. Although the two sides agreed to meet for a new round of talks in the Russian capital, Moscow, on June 18-19, international analysts have no doubt that the United States has been the main obstacle on the way of achieving acceptable and serious agreements in this round of talks. The approach adopted by the US representatives both before and during negotiations, and even after talks, when the US negotiator visited Tel Aviv, was full of conflicts and contradictions which characterize the framework within which the Obama Administration has chosen to deal with Iran’s nuclear case.

Recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and the US approach to these developments bring a basic proposition to one’s mind. US intervention in other countries confirms this principle that national interests constitute the foremost and the most important criterion for assessing performance of the United States foreign policy.

Iran can play a crucial part in preventing further escalation of disputes and evolution of the existing crisis into an all-out military confrontation by taking advantage of its diplomatic capacities to get regional countries’ positions close together and, in the same time, design and implement water supply projects in such downstream countries as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In this way, Iran will be able to provide grounds for protection of peace and stability and promotion of sustainable development in the region more than any time before.

Iran has shared more common grounds with the Middle Eastern and Persian Gulf countries and, therefore, relations with those countries have been important to Iran and a matter of high attention. Here, we will focus on Iran's foreign policy approaches toward its northern neighbors. Iran's relations with these countries have been two-way. In this type of relationship, common interests should be defined first before relations can be formed around them so that both countries will be benefited by these relations and mutual benefit will help relations to be sustained.

It seems that there are two different viewpoints about how security is going to be maintained in Afghanistan after 2014, the date at which Afghanistan forces are presumed to take complete charge of the country’s security affairs. These two viewpoints have gained more importance and come to the fore after it was announced that the third stage of delegating responsibility for the security of eleven important provinces of Afghanistan has gotten underway.

The theory of Iran's strategic influence has received recognition at international level in the early months of 2012 and has been subject to frequent discussions by famous experts. The point, however, should be taken into account that many indices determine the outlook of Iran's increasing influence in the international arena. Of special importance here is the role played by the elites and human assets of this nation-state in promoting Iran's influence at international level in a way that will best serve the country’s national interests.