Writing in International Policy Digest, Dr. Ivan Sascha Sheehan, interim dean of The University of Baltimore's College of Public Affairs and an internationally recognized expert in international affairs, assesses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recent meeting with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's former monarch, as a mistake.
"Zelensky has, throughout [Ukraine's war with Russia], demonstrated a remarkable degree of political resolve in defending Ukraine against Russian aggression. Yet even strong leaders are not immune to misjudgment," Dr. Sheehan writes. "In this instance, the optics are difficult to ignore. Maintaining distance from the exiled crown prince would better serve Ukraine's strategic interests—and would more faithfully align Kyiv with the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people."
Calling the meeting in Paris "deeply flawed," Sheehan says Zelensky may have been seeking support in defense of his country.
[Zelensky] "may have believed he was acting on a familiar wartime instinct: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Iran's regime continues to supply drones and other military support to Russia, Ukraine's principal aggressor. From Kyiv's vantage point, engaging an Iranian opposition figure might have appeared not only defensible but strategically sound."
But with Iran's future an open question, and the binary choice between a monarchy and a theocracy looking increasingly like a false choice, the meeting "amounted to a lose-lose encounter—one that delivered little of substance for Ukraine among its Western allies while simultaneously undercutting Zelensky's standing with the Iranian people, who remain the true arbiters of their country's future."
Read the opinion piece in International Policy Digest.
Learn more about Prof. Ivan Sascha Sheehan and The University of Baltimore's College of Public Affairs.