Spain's Stance on Iran Nuclear Talks: Limitations and Soft Power Approach

Sanctions imposed on Iran to curb Iran's nuclear program proved to be a genuine threat to energy security of major oil importers from Iran, including Spain. With the onset of Iran nuclear issue, Spain could use different policies towards Iran, including leadership role, passive role or acting as a facilitator of the EU foreign policy. Thus, the main question of this research is: What role did Spain play in achieving the JCPOA within the framework of the European Union? The hypothesis of the research states that Spain was taking steps drawing upon its soft power sources to act as a facilitator of the EU foreign policy towards Iran and to achieve the JCPOA. The theoretical framework used is Nye’s theory of soft power. The qualitative research method was the Fairclough’s 3D Model was adopted and the data is drawn from documentary method. The results indicate that Spain, by using soft power components, acted both to advance the EU's strategy towards Iran and to increase its influence in the EU. In its approach towards Iran, Spain considered the issue of improving its situation within the decision-making structure of the European Union. various discourses such as the dialogue of the alliance of civilizations and closeness and friendship during the Zapatero era, trust-building discourse, the regional role of Iran, energy diplomacy and the legal discourse of the Rajoy era all were in the direction of creating and using soft power in order to change the stance in Iran and the European Union.