Khaberni - Written by the General Secretary of Azm Party, Engineer Zaid Naffa:
Expiry
A Political Reading in Times of Decisive Transformations.
1979/2/1 - 2026/2/1
Engineer Zaid Naffa
The General Secretary of the Azm Party.
Many institutions and entities in countries around the world function as sovereign national institutions, such as: the standards and measurement agency, and the general institution for food and drugs.
Due to the nature of their work, these institutions have coordinative and technical relations with specialized international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aiming to ensure the safety of foods and pharmaceutical products, and to achieve the highest standards of quality, health, safety, and security.
However, the essence of this relationship remains clear and constant:
National institutions remain sovereign in their powers and decisions, even if they rely on international recommendations or standards. This clearly distinguishes them from international organizations that are cross-border, such as UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Trade Organization, the World Tourism Organization, and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), which derive their legitimacy from a comprehensive international consensus, not from the sovereignty of a particular state.
Returning to the essence of the topic, the discussion of powers—whether national or international—is not a trivial administrative detail but a fundamental entry point for understanding major shifts in international politics.
For example, the standards and measurement agency is the national authority legally authorized to grant approvals for the use of various equipment and machinery, and the general institution for food and drugs is the official authority authorized to grant approvals on foods, drugs, products, determine their expiry dates, and withdraw them from the market when expired, considering their immediate destruction or detention for a specified period as preparation for their disposal following legal procedures.
International organizations, however, base their decisions not on narrow national or local considerations but on international balances, major interests, and far-reaching strategic readings.
A few days ago, during an extensive discussion involving a group of politicians specialized in the security policy in the Middle East, I was asked a direct question about the current changes and the future of the region.
I asked the inquirer to specify the question more precisely, as the general answer would have led us to a full lecture, and perhaps to an in-depth and prolonged discussion, starting with Iraq, passing through Syria, and the Hezbollah file, reaching the most complex and dangerous files related to the state of occupation, the future of the West Bank, the Gaza file, and the new Peace Council.
He said directly, and clearly:
«The file on fire… Iran.»
I paused for a moment and took a deep breath.
The file on Iran is, without a doubt, the most complex, influential, and interwoven in the region's stability—politically, economically, geographically, and militarily—not only since the establishment of the regime of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist but since the formation of the modern Iranian state, and perhaps even earlier than that.
But due to time constraints, a condensed and direct response was required; hence, I chose a practical and clever metaphor:
I likened the political system to the expiry of products.
Just as:
• National institutions determine the product's expiry within their sovereign scope,
• International organizations set broader standards that transcend state borders,
Today, we witness a new phase where traditional powers have shrunk, now actually concentrated in the hands of faster and stronger forces capable of ending the “expiry” of any political system whenever they see it is no longer suitable for use, or becomes a burden on international stability, as happened at the beginning of this year.
Thus, the answer was clear and straightforward to the posed question:
Yes, the decision has been made.
And the expiry has occurred.
We are now in an accurate phase of tracking the locations of “goods”, withdrawing “products” from the markets, and perhaps the irony is that the destruction process might occur in their places, not outside them, given that the infrastructure
for the “new products” is much more complicated than what the world saw at the beginning of this year.
It is not just a metaphor.
But a precise description of an international political stage, where major files are managed with an expiry and termination mindset,
not with a mindset of slogans or speeches.
And the real question no longer is:
Has the expiry arrived?
But rather:
Who will be the alternative?
And with which standards and measurements?
And of course, without the slightest disregard for seeking the prior opinion of the “Food and Drug Agency” about the expiry duration of the new product.
