New Zealand at peace with Iran
I love this country, says our man in Tehran. Hamish MacMaster has been New Zealand's ambassador to Iran - the post also covers Pakistan and Afghanistan - for the past three years.
TIM PANKHURST - The Dominion Post | Saturday, 22 September 2007
Our man in Tehran has good credentials to represent us in Iran, a country that's difficult for Westerners to understand. He's finishing his second stint there and has signed up for an extra year.
I love this country, says our man in Tehran. Hamish MacMaster has been New Zealand's ambassador to Iran - the post also covers Pakistan and Afghanistan - for the past three years. His credentials are impeccable. The Cantabrian's commitment to the Middle East is there for everyone to see.
His wife, Mati, is Iranian, their son William, 9, was born in Turkey, and daughter Jane, 7, in Saudi Arabia.
He is fascinated by the culture and history of the region as well as its rich stew of politics.
This is his second stint in Tehran. He was there for three years from 1991 as second secretary.
"The Persians do relate to someone who came back and who has an obvious regard for their country," he says over lunch in the elegant residence surrounded by high walls and trees in the Jamran district on the northern slopes of Tehran.
Ayatollah Khomeini, the stern leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution that saw the overthrow of the Shah, lived nearby during the eight-year war against Iraq during the 1980s.
The curve of the lower slopes of the Alborz mountains meant this area was safe from Iraqi missiles.
The New Zealand embassy several kilometres to the south was not directly hit but a missile motor did fall into the garden.
The embassy also gained kudos by being one of the few to remain staffed and open during that turbulent post-revolution period when Iran was at war for eight years.
Mr MacMaster keeps a supportive eye on the 20 to 30 New Zealanders living in Iran, as well as building trade and political ties.
"We are well regarded," he says.
"We have had a good relationship with Iran over the past 30 years. It is our longest relationship with any Middle Eastern country in terms of a presence. We're seen as an independent country. We don't have the same sort of historical baggage as other countries.
"We speak frankly with Iran. We do discuss issues where we do have disagreements, such as the nuclear issue and human rights. They respect that.
"We would want Iran to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions on this issue and to fully cooperate with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to clear up remaining questions with regard to Iran's nuclear programme.
"We hope that there will be a peaceful, negotiated solution to this matter and urge Iran along this path." With considerable diplomatic tact, he says, "you could say the Iranian president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) does make some extremely forthright statements.
"New Zealand has gone on record as voicing its concern about his statements on the Holocaust and wiping out Israel." He says the politics of Iran and the wider region are incredibly complex and it is difficult for outsiders to get a flavour.
His take is that generational change is under way, from those who drove the revolution to the vast bulk of the population, aged under 30.
In between is the war generation, which includes the president.
Fifty MPs in the Majlis (parliament) have a military background.
Casualties in the Iraq war, the longest conventional war of last century, were on a World War I scale, though Iran has never made public its considerable losses.
Those experiences have shaped Iran's rulers.
The internal bloodletting and repression after the revolution have abated but the public is still exhorted with stern slogans.
"You have to be mindful of the requirements and the conventions and you have to respect them," Mr MacMaster, ever the diplomat, says.
For men, this means never wearing shorts in public, though short-sleeved shirts are becoming more common in the summer heat.
Women face much more severe restrictions, and police and the militia - the baseji - are charged with ensuring they do not break the strict dress code.
Older and more conservative women generally wear the all-encompassing black chador, with only the face visible in a gown that covers the head and extends to the ground.
Younger women wear the hijab (scarf) or a half-length coat (roopoosh).
Make-up, once forbidden, is allowed and, unlike Saudi Arabia, women are permitted to drive.
The upside of such a controlled society with deep religious convictions - devout Shia pray three times a day to Allah - is that teeming Tehran, with a population of 13 million, is possibly the world's safest large city.
Diplomatic links go back to 1975 when New Zealand established its embassy, the first in the Middle East.
Embassies in Bahrain and Baghdad opened at about the same time but have since closed.
The policy remains one of constructive engagement, rather than destructive isolationism.
Iran's embassy in Wellington, in Te Anau Rd in Roseneath, opened in 1985. The only other Middle Eastern country represented locally is Turkey.
Frozen lamb exports boomed in the mid 1980s and the 149,000-tonne total in 1984, worth nearly half a billion dollars, was more than that exported to Britain.
That trade has since virtually disappeared, and butter, milk and wool made up most of the exports worth $130 million in the year to June 2007.
In turn, we imported Iranian petroleum and dates and figs to a near similar value. Personal links are strong. An estimated 7000 to 10,000 Iranian nationals live here.
Iran is also drawing on New Zealand expertise in gas projects, earthquake strengthening and airways management.
Mr MacMaster, 45, has sought and been granted a one-year extension to the three years he has been in the post.
He takes pride in our now well-established links with the region but shakes his head in wonder at a point made by his Greek counterpart - Greece and Iran have had a bilateral relationship for 3000 years.
NUCLEAR IRAN'S PR OFFENSIVE E1
A BAZAAR EXPERIENCE E3 |
