Can Iran reinvent itself? A fragile charm offensive meets mounting internal strain

The Guardian-Nov24th2025

Patrick Wintour in Tehran

Iran is taking its first faltering steps to boost its dismal soft power abilities, spotting a slim opening to improve regional relations after Donald Trump’s June bombing campaign and Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar unsettled Gulf states.

The tentative foreign policy tweaks are born in part of necessity: much of Iran’s network of regional military alliances has been dismantled in recent years. But there is also a feeling in Tehran that Trump’s trampling over international law gives it an opportunity to forge less disruptive alliances with Arab neighbours.

In mid-November an Iranian thinktank linked to the foreign ministry convened a forum in Tehran titled “International law under assault”. International academics and senior Iranian diplomats discussed how the US – not Iran – was now the rogue state destroying the rules-based order.

At a recent briefing in the Iranian capital, the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said: “The solid foundations of international law have been subjected to unprecedented attacks by powers that were expected to be its permanent defenders and custodians.”

‘Massive shift in thinking in Gulf’

The lack of condemnation by Europe of the unilateral US strikes on Iran in June, which killed more than 1,000 Iranians, still astonishes Iranian officialdom.

Trump’s recent confession that he was fully involved in planning the operation, while pretending to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear programme, has intensified that anger. Iranian diplomats recall preparing for a sixth round of talks with the UN, only to be woken at 3am by news of bombs falling – followed hours later by denials from the US envoy, Steve Witkoff, that he knew anything about the assault.

Iran is now not only nursing this grievance but trying to use it to reposition itself in the region, holding out the hand of friendship to states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. “Iran considers the security of the countries in the region as its own security and wants ‘lasting trust’ to be the basis and axis of the new space in this region,” Araghchi said.

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