The turnout of leaders at the Organisation of Islamic Conference summit at Teheran is a diplomatic coup for Iran's new moderate leadership. It marks the end of Iran's inward-looking phase since its revolution of 1979 and the start of a more active role in world affairs. The remarkable feature of the gathering is the presence of high-level representatives from Iraq, an old foe, and from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan which are the lynchpins of Washington's Middle East strategy. The contrast between the Teheran conference and the Middle East economic summit sponsored by the US a few weeks ago in Qatar could not be starker. Few Arab delegations went to Qatar and consisted mostly of low-level officials whereas Teheran has managed to attract heads of government or senior political leaders. The challenge to Washington's Middle East policies takes various forms. There is, first and foremost, a strong protest against the stalled peace process and Washington's failure to prevail upon Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hand over more land to the Palestinian Authority. There is also a counter-manoeuvre to President Clinton's attempts to isolate Iran commercially and politically.

A third purpose, made clear in the unscheduled and fiery opening address by Iran's key religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the search for Islamic unity and an Islamic answer to the political, economic and cultural domination of the West. Rhetoric aside, Teheran knows that building bridges in the Middle East and beyond require it to adopt moderate policies at home and abroad, avoiding the kind of postures that arouse suspicions among its neighbours about its regional ambitions and deny it access to Western technology and American, if not European, markets. The practical, level-headed President Mohammed Khatami appears to be just the man for the job. OIC summits usually have more symbolism than substance. As awesome as a united Islamic world may sound, accomplishing that task across a broad swathe of issues is altogether impossible given the differences among the 55 nations represented in the OIC. Nevertheless, the one voice with which this year's summit has attacked the lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is bound to reverberate in Washington and Jerusalem.

New Delhi has invested much in maintaining high-level contacts with Teheran in recent years and will welcome signs that Iran is breaking out of its self-imposed and externally-induced isolation. New Delhi can probably count on some degree of sobriety from Iran, Egypt and others when it comes to the Kashmir issue. But in the hothouse of the OIC, chaired by Teheran, inevitably, Kashmir is on the agenda and rhetoric is high. And thus, a collection of largely undemocratic countries would have the world believe, at Pakistan's urging, that human rights are a central concern. Against that background of hypocrisy, the so-called contact group on Kashmir is enlarged, resolutions are passed and delegations are ready to go to J&K. India can only hope that such zealousness will spark some genuine concern about political and religious freedoms in their own backyards.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.