Last week, foreign heads of state, presidents, special envoys, diplomats, ministers, lawmakers, and advisors streamed into Tehran to pay their final respects following the helicopter accident that claimed the lives of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six others.
Across the Global South, several countries declared days of national mourning, and dozens offered condolences and sympathies to the Islamic Republic for the loss of their president.
Iran’s allies in the Axis of Resistance that include Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Yemen’s Ansarallah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), did not forget Iran during this difficult time, either.
The presence of Palestinian officials in the mourning ceremonies and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s speech before the Jainaza Prayers made the total absence of Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders all the more noticeable.
Iran’s neighbors show support
One notable guest was Tunisia’s President Kais Saeid – a historic first visit to Iran by a Tunisian head of state. He had only once spoken to Raisi on the sidelines of a forum in Algeria in March 2024 and relayed that conversation to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that Raisi had urged him to visit Iran and he never imagined he would instead attend the late president’s funeral.
Afghanistan’s rulers, the Taliban, also sent a senior delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The delegation met with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Hamas’ Haniyeh but was unable to meet with Khamenei, apparently a deliberate move from an Iranian leadership that has long urged the Taliban to take more practical and reasonable steps to enhance bilateral relations.
Iraq demonstrated full support for Iran, deploying several delegations and declaring a day of national mourning. Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, former prime ministers Haider al-Abadi and Adil Abdul Mahdi, and heads of Shia and Sunni political factions and tribes all traveled to Tehran. Additionally, the President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, who had been in Iran two weeks before the tragic crash, headed a high-level delegation.
Persian Gulf Arab states were among the neighboring countries that stood in solidarity with the grieving Iranian people. Prince Mansour bin Mutaib bin Abdulaziz, a special aide to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Al-Saud, headed the delegation from Riyadh. Oman sent several ministers, while the foreign ministers of Kuwait and the UAE, and the Emir of Qatar also flew to Tehran to pay respects.
Bahrain’s surprising gesture
Perhaps the most unexpected gesture came from Bahrain, a country that severed ties with Iran nine years ago. Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa had sent a message of condolences to Ayatollah Khamenei and dispatched his foreign minister to Tehran.
This marked the first visit of a top Bahraini diplomat to Iran in 13 years. Undoubtedly, part of this show of respect is related to the late Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, who served as Iran’s ambassador to Manama from 2007 to 2010.
It appears, however, that Bahrain’s gesture was not merely an act of sympathy. As Iran bid farewell to its leaders on 23 May, King Hamad visited Moscow, where he reportedly requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a deal between Manama and Tehran.
Per news reports, the Bahraini monarch informed the Russian president that his country was seeking a revival of relations with Tehran. In videos from their meeting, Hamad admitted his country had problems with Iran – but not anymore:
There is no reason to postpone the resumption of diplomatic relations because the people of Bahrain love Iran, they have a (common) history with Iran, and they want to make visits to Iran.
King Hamad’s reference to ‘past problems’ specifically involves the 2011 Bahraini “Arab Springs” uprising against the government, when Manama cracked down heavily – with Saudi military help – against mostly Shia protestors, accusing the Islamic Republic of fomenting unrest in the small island country. It is an accusation that Iran vehemently rejects to this day.
It should be noted that Bahrain is a majority Shia emirate, ruled by a minority Sunni royal family, and any popular dissent against the Manama government would naturally be demographically mostly Shia.
Relations further deteriorated after Bahrain began imprisoning Shia activists and political figures and exiled the spiritual leader of the Shia community, Sheikh Issa Qasim, who is currently residing in the Iranian city of Qom.
Bahrain finally followed Saudi Arabia’s suit and severed diplomatic ties with Tehran after Iranians stormed the Saudi diplomatic missions in protest of the kingdom’s execution of 50 Shia political prisoners, among them prominent, outspoken Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Hesitation in normalization
With Iran and Saudi Arabia restoring diplomatic relations with China’s arbitration in March 2023, it was thought that the countries in the Saudi constellation, which had all cut ties with Iran, would re-establish their respective diplomatic links. This was the case for Sudan and Djibouti, and to some extent with Egypt, which deployed its Foreign Minister Shoukry for the first time to Tehran last week.
However, normalization with Bahrain has not progressed as anticipated. Despite King Hamad’s remarks and his willingness to re-establish ties, it appears that Iran is now hesitant – for some clear reasons:
First and most critical is Iran’s commitment to its co-religionists in Bahrain’s Shia community. In principle, Iran does not intend to withdraw its moral and spiritual support for Bahraini Shias, whose political and religious leaders are serving long-term prison sentences, in exchange for rapprochement with Manama.
Tehran has long prioritized the fair representation of Bahrain’s Shia majority in the country’s political bodies and institutions. As long as Manama does not address the issue of Shia political prisoners and ease social and security restrictions on this pressured community, Iran is unlikely to advance normalization with Bahrain.
Second, and more recently, is Bahrain’s relationship with Israel, established and formalized during the 2020 Abraham Accords in Washington. Although Bahrain has since suspended economic ties with Israel and recalled its ambassador due to Tel Aviv’s brutal military assault on Gaza, Iran remains concerned about the occupation state’s presence in Bahrain.
Third is the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain. Tehran’s stated goal is to drive US and other foreign armed forces out of the region, and the fleet’s presence in Bahrain is a significant obstacle. The small emirate also hosts the UK’s Royal Navy base, first established in 1935 and reopened officially in 2018.
Despite these obstacles, Iran is unlikely to reject Moscow’s mediation efforts, as a Bahraini official has revealed that Putin is to mediate between Tehran and Manama.
Solidify your friends, make your foes come to you
The support and sympathy shown last week by Iran’s neighbors – Arab states, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Turkiye, Iraq, Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan – alongside representatives from 115 countries illustrate the effectiveness of the late President Raisi’s foreign policy, which was established on three essential pillars: looking to the east, engagement with neighbors, and unifying the Global South.
While Tehran may appreciate the countries who joined in mourning its deceased top officials, it keeps a record of the mostly European countries whose embassies in Tehran did not even bother to send a condolence message – the same diplomatic missions that openly supported protesters during the 2020 anti-government demonstrations in Iran.
As one old Iranian proverb says, “Show respect, earn respect.” The next president of Iran will almost certainly tread down the diplomatic path established by Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian and strive to expand ties further with the countries that stood by Iran in its moment of grief.