During the 1980s, the foreign policy doctrine of the Islamic republic was formed under the influence of two factors: the rejection of the Shah's political heritage by the new authorities of the country and their intention to create a new model of sociopolitical development that would be based on the principles of Islam and represent an alternative to the Soviet and Western models of development. The new concept of Iran's foreign policy formulated during the first decade after the Islamic revolution had several peculiarities. First of all, during the 1980s, there was no officially adopted document that would clearly outline the foreign policy doctrine of the Islamic republic. Yet, there was a set of principles that determined Tehran's approaches to the key international issues. These principles were formulated in the official documents (such as the Constitution of Iran adopted after the Islamic revolution of 1978-79) and key works by the founders of the new regime such as Khomeini himself, Morteza Motahhari (1919-79), Mohammad Beheshti (1928-81), and Mahmoud Taleghani (1911-79) as well as in the books by Iranian intellectuals such as Ali Shariati (1933-77) and Jalal Al-e-Ahmad (1923-69).

1. The Idea of the Third Pass

A key role in the formulation of the tasks set by the authorities of the Islamic republic during 1979-89 was played by books and speeches by the prominent ideologist of the Islamic revolution, Morteza Mottahari. He was an active promoter of the ideas of Islamic revival and political Islam (islam-e siyasi). Like Khomeini, Mottahari believed in the necessity of the creation of a new society based on the principles of Islam that would offer people ‘the third way of development’ as an alternative to the Western and Communist/Soviet social models. This ideal society was to go beyond Iran's borders and unite the Islamic community on the principles of social security, stability, justice, equality as well as the absence of social conflicts and wars. Moreover, Mottahari was persuaded that the emergence of such a society was possible exclusively under the auspices of Islam. He argued that the idea of ‘social justice’ as well as the ideal society is embedded in Islam. Thus, he referred to the Quranic text: ‘And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors’ (Quran 28:5). For this purpose Allah ‘who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although they who associate others with Allah dislike it’ (Quran 9:33).