Internal Factors and its Impact on Iranian Foreign Policy

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a political structure with co-shared and competitive activity in the field of foreign policy. There are two power centres the president and the supreme leader. Iranian political elite is composed of factions of the conservatives, moderates, pragmatists, and reformers. Each faction has influence on the course of Iranian foreign policy. The dominant faction, conservatives, has caused isolation and imposition of severe sanctions on Iran during Ahmadinejad’s presidency Although domestic sources of foreign policy reveals competition among different factions there is consensus in principal goals of Iranian foreign policy.