Iran: Cultural Values, Self images and Negotiation Behavior

Communication and NegotiationIt was clear then that delaying answers put pressure on the Iranian side. On the otherhand, Iranian predilection to slow and drawn out deliberations was at its best innegotiations for hostages, and particularly in extended and unsuccessful negotiationsfor the Israeli navigator, Ron Arad. Testimonies about both business and diplomaticnegotiations with Iranians are replete with stories of talks reaching the final stage andthen the Iranian side asking for a deferral of the final agreement for a day, which isthen extended to a few days. This pattern is interpreted as deriving from a basicassumption that the opposite number is usually stronger, and therefore a delay canbenefit the weak by producing new opportunities. 143 In terms of negotiationtechniques, Iranians tend to set a relatively high BATNA, 144 thus demonstratingwillingness to walk away from the table at an early stage of negotiations. Since theBATNA is time-dependent (a better alternative may not exist presently, but it mayarise in the future, hence there is no reason to concede now), the Iranian tendency todraw out negotiations is compatible with this pattern.Punctuality is not central in Iranian etiquette – either from the point of view of thehost or the guest. 145 Arriving late for a meeting does not necessarily project lack ofrespect and it is not politically correct to comment on a visitor's lack of punctuality. 146Ambiguity vs. ClarityThere seems to be a contradiction between the proclivity of Iranians to legalisticdetail and their use of ambiguity. Iranian interlocutors have received high marks fromtheir Western counterparts on the level of their preparations and the detailed andlegalistic attitude they demonstrate. On the other hand, most accounts of ongoing talkswith Iranians – both business and diplomatic –stress the extreme ambiguity that theIranian side preserved throughout the negotiations. This tendency has been explainedby a variety of cultural traits: an aversion to spelling things out on one hand, or adelight in confusing the counterpart. The rules of the game preclude allowing theother side to know what you know or do not know, but require projecting asophisticated façade.Iranian negotiators have a reputation of being protocol-shy, preferring not to putthe trend of the discussions on paper or to draw up protocols or interim MOUs. Thishas been attributed to a variety of causes: bazaar traditions of doing business on thebasis of oral agreements; Shiite customs of taqiyya; the structure of the Iranianregime, which compartmentalizes the non-clerical bureaucracy from the real143 Meir Ezri, Mi bahem Mikol Amo (Hebrew) (Or Yehuda, Israel: Hed Artzi, 2001) 15.Meir Ezri notes that this is a permanent characteristic of negotiations with Iran.144 See. Leigh Thompson, The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001):11–12.145 Masani Sir Rustom, described the Persian attitude to punctuality as follows: “[The Persian] iscertainly no slave of the clock and in no hurry to start. A meeting may be fixed for five o'clock;business may not begin till six o'clock. You may be invited to dinner at eight o'clock. It may not beserved till ten o'clock. You wonder if there would ever be an end to the stream of salutations, shafts ofwitticisms and the rounds of tea without milk offered to you. Tortured by hunger, you may sip the teaor chew the dry fruit or shirini (pastry) laid in front of you…” Masani Sir Rustom, “With Dinshah Iraniin New Iran,” Dinshah Irani Memorial Volume (Bombay, 1948).146 Y. was scheduled to meet the Shah in Europe in the late 1970's due to traffic, he arrived an hour late.The Shah did not even ask about the delay. Y explains that raising the question of the delay wouldseem as if the host is questioning the respect in which the guest holds him. That in itself would be aninsult to the guest.41