“I tried to log on to the website of a major Polish newspaper, and unfortunately, I could not do it,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced during his recent two-day visit to Iran. “I was told that the website was blocked by censorship.” During the speech, delivered at a press conference in Tehran, he turned to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and said, with a shrug of apparent disbelief, “For us, coming from a country that fought for freedom of speech, this came as a shock”. He went on to say that the two countries needed to “engage in a human rights dialogue” and that “the world had noticed that Iran has recently carried out more death sentences”.
But what did Sikorski hope to achieve through this kind of statement, and who did he hope might hear it?
He can’t have thought it would have been well received by his counterpart, whose government has recently been criticized by hardliners for what they see as inappropriate and irrelevant attention to Western views on human rights. President Rouhani’s Citizenship Rights Charter, presented late last year, has met with considerable backlash and recent weeks have seen members of his administration appeal to religious leaders, including a visit by Abbas Araghchi, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, to Ayatollah Yazdi in Qom.
Yet Rouhani’s government is keen to send a message that it is ready to do business with the international community. The website of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions the Polish minister’s visit, and Zarif is quoted saying that he and Sikorski discussed how the “two countries could deepen their bilateral ties” during the visit, which included a visit to Isfahan. While there, the Polish minister met the provincial governor and laid a wreath at a Christian cemetery, a recognition of Iranian-Polish friendship during World War II, when Isfahan was home to thousands of Polish refugees. It was in Isfahan that Sikorski tried to log on to the Polish news site.
The View From Warsaw
But how were Sikorski’s comments received in Warsaw? Though the minister reiterated his statements on Twitter, with most of Europe transfixed on the crisis in Ukraine, the comments have gone largely unnoticed by the Polish public. Sikorski’s comments may well have evoked the long-fought war to secure their right to free expression and full independence from the shadow of Russian dominance, but his comments were meant to be taken at face value: he was not referring to Poland’s stance on Ukraine or anywhere else. “He does not need to use Aesopian language when discussing Ukraine, and has been more than straightforward about developments there,” said Konstanty Gebert, a Polish journalist and free speech activist who was a prominent figure in Poland’s Solidarity movement. According to him, the comments were not meant for a Polish audience and Sikorski “clearly wanted his hosts to know that censorship is unacceptable”.
For some in the international community, there are definite resonances between Ukraine and Iran. A civil society campaigner and media expert told me that many believe that if the United Kingdom, United States and Russia do not protect Ukraine’s sovereignty, it will send a very bad message to Iran, particularly with regard to nuclear capabilities. The world would do well to recall the disarmament of Ukraine following the Budapest Memorandum signed in 1994. And Iran must not be sent the message that nuclear disengagement leads to lack of power and sovereignty.
Future Plans for Business
Though it’s hard to imagine how Sikorski’s comments would bolster Poland’s efforts to improve relations – particularly with regard to business – it’s possible that the foreign minister was hoping to give the wider international community the impression that Poland’s government is straight-talking and principled. As Robert Stefanicki from Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza noted: “Sikorski routinely pays visits to the potential new friends of the West (Burma, Libya), trying to open doors to Polish business – and gaining points for himself in the international scene.”
And what about Iranian people? Having just experienced Iran’s censorship, Sikorski must have known that very few people in the country will have heard what he had to say. In fact, it could be argued that Sikorski’s “shock” is somewhat surprising and a little naive, given the widespread attention Iran’s censorship has received in recent years.
Yet, if Zarif’s lack of response, at least visually, is anything to go by, it’s reasonable to assume that Iranian officials will simply ignore the minister’s comments, and push on with establishing the business ties – particularly in the petrochemical, food and medical markets – both countries want.
In April, representatives from the Polish business community and economic experts will visit Tehran. Rouhani’s government is clearly committed to building economic ties with as many countries as possible, as a recent trip from French business union Medef illustrates. As Gebert observes, the time when a Polish president believes that Iran only "understands only the language of force,” as President Kaczynski once said, are truly over. And, as Gazeta Wyborcza’s Stefanicki says, Sikorski’s statements were accurate and he was right to make them. “But", he adds, “who cares?”
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