Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said the enemy has always sought to polarize the Iranian nation, calling on the country’s student community to adhere to the principles of realism in its demands.
Imam Khamenei made the remarks on the 27th day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on Tuesday in an address to a group of university students and campaigners of student movements.
“Student activities should not polarize the student community and the country. Polarization is the will of the enemy. Students’ demands must be accompanied by realism and providing scientific and practical solutions,” His Eminence said.
Imam Khamenei dismissed the idea that any dismay about the resolution of the country’s problems has an internal origin, saying it is the enemy’s strategy to make the Iranian nation feel disappointed about itself.
“Hardships do not demoralize a motivated young student. He studies and fights to solve problems,” he said.
Emphasizing that “everyone should be up-to-date in getting to know the enemy’s plan and strategy,” His Eminence said, “Whether we understand it or not, the enemy is constantly working against the ‘righteous front’ by spending money and resources.”
Imam Khamenei also said the ill-wishing media insist that the Iranian nation has turned away from religious beliefs and revolutionary ideals, but this year’s Laylat al-Qadr, which marks the night when the Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammad [PBUH], and International Quds Day were more vibrant than last year.
Responding to a question about the possibility of holding referendums on the country’s issues, Sayyed Ali Khamenei said, “Is it possible to hold referendums on various issues in the country? Where in the world do they do this? Do all the people who have to participate in the referendum have the ability to analyze that issue?”
Imam Khamenei called on the Iranian youths to resolutely follow the path of the Islamic Revolution and Islam while keeping hope and rationality alive, and warned, “Enemies hold a grudge against the Iranian youths” as they are afraid of the Iranian young generation’s presence, work and motivation.
Head of Hezbollah Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine
Head of Hezbollah Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine stressed on Wednesday that the axis of resistance has unified its capabilities to engage in the major confrontation with the Israeli enemy.
Addressing “Al-Quds Shield” conference in Beirut, Sayyed Safieddine emphasized that the target is the demise of ‘Isael’ whose officials, consequently, started reflecting pessimism and losing temper.
His eminence indicated that the rulers’ policies have driven people away from the resistance project, adding that this allowed the Israeli enemy to exercise oppression without any limit.
Sayyed Safieddine warned Netanyahu that all the components of the axis of resistance would respond to any Israeli folly.
Sayyed Safieddine said, “As the West Bank is the Shield of al-Quds, we, all the resistance fighters, are the shield of the West Bank, al-Quds, and our people in Palestine and the Ummah to eradicate this entity.”
Sayyed Safieddine highlighted the role of the Islamic Republic since the Revolution emerged victorious in 1979 in supporting the Palestinian cause and shaking the pillars of the occupation entity despite all the high costs.
Sayyed Safieddine indicated that Imam Khomeni set Al-Quds International Day as being for all Muslims and free people across the world, not just the Palestinians.
Raisi’s visit to Beijing, the first for an Iranian president in 20 years, represents Tehran’s wholesale ‘Pivot to the East’ and China’s recognition of Iran’s centrality to its BRI plans.
The visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Beijing and his face-to- face meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping is a groundbreaking affair in more ways than one.
Raisi, the first Iranian president to officially visit China in 20 years, led an ultra high-level political and economic delegation, which included the new Central Bank governor and the Ministers of Economy, Oil, Foreign Affairs, and Trade.
The fact that Raisi and Xi jointly supervised the signing of 20 bilateral cooperation agreements ranging from agriculture, trade, tourism and environmental protection to health, disaster relief, culture and sports, is not even the major take away.
This week’s ceremonial sealing of the Iran-China comprehensive strategic partnership marks a key evolution in the multipolarity sphere: two Sovereigns – both also linked by strategic partnerships with Russia – imprinting to their domestic audiences and also to the Global South their vision of a more equitable, fair and sustainable 21st century which completely bypasses western dictates.
Beijing and Tehran first established their comprehensive strategic partnership when Xi visited Iran in 2016 – only one year after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iranian nuclear deal.
In 2021, Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year cooperation deal which translated the comprehensive partnership into practical economic and cultural developments in several fields, especially energy, trade and infrastructure. By then, not only Iran (for decades) but also China were being targeted by unilateral US sanctions.
Here is a relatively independent analysis of the challenges and prospects of the 25-year deal. And here is an enlightening perspective from neighboring Pakistan, also a strategic partner of China.
Iran: gotta modernize everything
Beijing and Tehran are already actively cooperating in the construction of selected lines of Tehran’s subway, the Tehran-Isfahan high-speed railway, and of course joint energy projects. Chinese tech giant Huawei is set to help Tehran to build a framework for a 5G telecom network.
Raisi and Xi, predictably, stressed increased joint coordination at the UN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which Iran is the newest member, as well as a new drive along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
While there was no explicit mention of it, underlying all these initiatives is the de-dollarization of trade – in the framework of the SCO but also the multipolar BRICS group of states. Iran is set to become one of the new members of BRICS+, a giant step to be decided in their upcoming summit in South Africa next August.
There are estimates in Tehran that Iran-China annual trade may reach over $70 billion in the mid-term, which will amount to triple the current figures.
When it comes to infrastructure building, Iran is a key BRI partner. The geostrategy of course is hard to match: a 2,250 km coastline encompassing the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Sea of Oman and the Caspian Sea – and huge land borders with Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Every think tank in China sees how Iran is irreplaceable, not only in terms of BRI land corridors, but also the Maritime Silk Road.
Chabahar Port may be a prime Iran-India affair, as part of the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) – thus directly linked to the Indian vision of a Silk Road, extending to Central Asia.
But Chinese port developers do have other ideas, focused on alternative ports along the Persian Gulf and in the Caspian Sea. That will boost shipping connections to Central Asia (Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan), Russia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan).
And that makes perfect sense when one combines port terminal development with the modernization of Iran’s railways – all the way to high-speed rail.
An even more revolutionary development would be China coordinating the BRI connection of an Iranian corridor with the already in progress 3,200 km-long China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), from Kashgar in Xinjiang to Gwadar port in the Indian Ocean.
That seemed perfectly plausible when Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was still in power, before being ousted by a lawfare coup. The key of the whole enterprise is to build badly needed infrastructure in Balochistan, on both sides of the border. On the Pakistani side, that would go a long way to smash CIA-fed “insurgents” of the Balochistan Liberation Army kind, get rid of unemployment, and put trade in charge of economic development.
Afghanistan of course enters the equation – in the form of a China-Afghan-Iran corridor linked to CPEC. Since September 2021, Beijing has explained to the Taliban, in detail, how they may profit from an infrastructure corridor – complete with railway, highway and pipeline – from Xinjiang, across the Wakhan corridor in eastern Afghanistan, through the Hindu Kush, all the way to Iran.
The core of multipolarity
Iran is perfectly positioned for a Chinese-propelled boom in high-speed cargo rail, connecting Iran to most of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan).
That means, in practice, cool connectivity with a major logistics cluster: the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Khorgos, only 330 km from Almaty on the Kazakh-China border, and only four hours from Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
If China pulls that off, it would be a sort of BRI Holy Grail, interconnecting China and Iran via Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Nothing less than several corridors in one.
All that is about to happen as the Islamic Revolution in Iran celebrates its 44th year.
What is already happening now, geopolitically, and fully recognized by China, might be defined as the full rejection of an absurdity: the collective west treating Iran as a pariah or at best a subjugated neo-colony.
With the diverse strands of the Resistance embedded in the Islamic Revolution finally consolidated, it looks like history is finally propelling Iran as one of the key poles of the most complex process at work in the 21st century: Eurasia integration.
So 44 years after the Islamic Revolution, Iran enjoys strategic partnerships with the three top BRICS: China, Russia and India.
Likely to become one of the first new members of BRICS+, Iran is the first West Asian state to become a full member of the SCO, and is clinching a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).
Iran is a major strategic partner of both BRI, led by China, and the INSTC, alongside Russia and India.
With the JCPOA all but dead, and all western “promises” lying in the dust, Tehran is consolidating its pivot back to the East at breakneck speed.
What Raisi and Xi sealed in Beijing heralds Chinese pre-eminence all across West Asia – keenly perceived in Beijing as a natural consequence of recognizing and honoring Iran’s regional centrality.
Iran’s “Look East” strategy could not be more compatible with BRI – as an array of BRI projects will accelerate Iran’s economic development and consolidate its inescapable role when it comes to trade corridors and as an energy provider.
During the 1980s Tehran was ruled by a “Neither East nor West” strategy – faithful to the tenets of the Islamic Revolution. That has now evolved, pragmatically, into “Look East.” Tehran did try to “Look West” in good faith, but what the US government did with the JCPOA – from its murder to “maximum pressure” to its aborted resuscitation – was quite a historical lesson.
What Raisi and Xi have just demonstrated in Beijing is the Sovereign way forward. The three leaders of Eurasia integration – China, Russia and Iran – are fast on their way to consolidate the core of multipolarity.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
The national flags of China and Iran fly in Tiananmen Square during Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi’s visit to Beijing, China, February 14, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)
The key takeaway of President Ebrahim Raeisi’s state visit to Beijing goes way beyond the signing of 20 bilateral cooperation agreements.
This is a crucial inflexion point in an absorbing, complex, decades-long, ongoing historical process: Eurasia integration.
Little wonder that President Raeisi, welcomed by a standing ovation at Peking University before receiving an honorary academic title, stressed “a new world order is forming and taking the place of the older one”, characterized by “real multilateralism, maximum synergy, solidarity and dissociation from unilateralisms”.
And the epicenter of the new world order, he asserted, is Asia.
It was quite heartening to see the Iranian president eulogizing the Ancient Silk Road, not only in terms of trade but also as a “cultural bond” and “connecting different societies together throughout history”.
Raeisi could have been talking about Sassanid Persia, whose empire ranged from Mesopotamia to Central Asia, and was the great intermediary Silk Road trading power for centuries between China and Europe.
It’s as if he was corroborating Chinese President Xi Jinping’s famed notion of “people to people exchanges” applied to the New Silk Roads.
And then President Raeisi jump cut to the inescapable historical connection: he addressed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), of which Iran is a key partner.
All that spells out Iran’s full reconnection with Asia – after those arguably wasted years of trying an entente cordiale with the collective West. That was symbolized by the fate of the JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal: negotiated, unilaterally buried and then, last year, all but condemned all over gain.
A case can be made that after the Islamic Revolution 44 years ago, a budding “pivot to the East” always lurked behind the official government strategy of “Neither East nor West”.
Starting in the 1990s that happened to progressively enter in full synch with China’s official “Open Door” policy.
After the start of the millennium, Beijing and Tehran have been getting even deeper in synch. BRI, the major geopolitical and geoeconomic breakthrough, was proposed in 2013, in Central Asia and Southeast Asia.
Then, in 2016, President Xi visited Iran, in West Asia, leading to the signing of several memoranda of understanding (MOU), and recently the wide-ranging 25-year comprehensive strategic agreement – consolidating Iran as a key BRI actor.
Accelerating all key vectors
In practice, Raeisi’s visit to Beijing was framed to accelerate all manner of vectors in Iran-China economic cooperation – from crucial investments in the energy sector (oil, gas, petrochemical industry, pipelines) to banking, with Beijing engaged in advancing modernizing reforms in Iran’s banking sector and Chinese banks opening branches across Iran.
Chinese companies may be about to enter the emerging Iranian commercial and private real estate markets, and will be investing in advanced technology, robotics and AI across the industrial spectrum.
Sophisticated strategies to bypass harsh, unilateral US sanctions will be a major focus every step of the way in Iran-China relations. Barter is certainly part of the picture when it comes to trading Iranian oil/gas contracts for Chinese industrial and infrastructure deals.
It’s quite possible that Iran’s sovereign wealth fund – the National Development Fund of Iran – with holdings at estimated $90 billion, may be able to finance strategic industrial and infrastructure projects.
Other international financial partners may come in the form of the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) and the NDB – the BRICS bank, as soon as Iran is accepted as a member of BRICS+: that may be decided this coming August at the summit in South Africa.
The heart of the matter of the strategic partnership is energy. The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) pulled out of a deal to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars gas field, adjacent to Qatar’s section.
Yet CNPC can always come back for other projects. Phase 11 is currently being developed by the Iranian energy company Petropars.
Energy deals – oil, gas, petrochemical industry, renewables – will boom across what I dubbed Pipelineistan in the early 2000s.
Chinese companies will certainly be part of new oil and gas pipelines connecting to the existing Iranian pipeline networks and configuring new pipeline corridors.
Already established Pipelineistan includes the Central Asia-China pipeline, which connects to China’s West-East pipeline grid, nearly 7,000 km from Turkmenistan to the eastern China seaboard; and the Tabriz-Ankara pipeline (2,577 km, from northwest Iran to the Turkish capital).
Then there’s one of the great sagas of Pipelineistan: the IP (Iran-Pakistan) gas pipeline, previously known as the Peace Pipeline, from South Pars to Karachi.
The Americans did everything in the book – and off the books – to stall it, delay it or even kill it. But IP refused to die; and the China-Iran strategic partnership could finally make it happen.
A new geostrategic architecture
Arguably, the central node of the China-Iran strategic partnership is the configuration of a complex geostrategic economic architecture: connecting the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship of BRI, to a two-pronged Iran-centered corridor.
This will take the form of a China-Afghanistan-Iran corridor and a China-Central Asia-Iran corridor, thus forming what we may call a geostrategic China-Iran Economic Corridor.
Beijing and Tehran, now on overdrive and with no time to lose, may face all manner of challenges – and threats – from the Hegemon; but their 25-year strategic deal does honor historically powerful trading/ merchant civilizations now equipped with substantial manufacturing/ industrial bases and with a serious tradition in advanced scientific innovation.
The serious possibility of China-Iran finally configuring what will be a brand new, expanded strategic economic space, from East Asia to West Asia, central to 21st century multipolarity, is a geopolitical tour de force.
Not only that will completely nullify the US sanction obsession; it will direct Iran’s next stages of much needed economic development to the East, and it will boost the whole geoeconomic space from China to Iran and everyone in between.
This whole process – already happening – is in many aspects a direct consequence of the Empire’s “until the last Ukrainian” proxy war against Russia.
Ukraine as cannon fodder is rooted in Mackinder’s heartland theory: world control belongs to the nation that controls the Eurasian land mass.
This was behind World War I, where Germany knocking out Russia created fear among the Anglo-Saxons that should Germany knock out France it would control the Eurasian land mass.
WWII was conceived against Germany and Japan forming an axis to control Europe, Russia and China.
The present, potential WWIII was conceived by the Hegemon to break a friendly alliance between Germany, Russia and China – with Iran as a privileged West Asia partner.
Everything we are witnessing at this stage spells out the US trying to break up Eurasia integration.
So it’s no wonder that the three top existential “threats” to the American oligarchy which dictates the “rules-based international order” are The Three Sovereigns: China, Russia and Iran.
Does that matter? Not really. We have just seen that while the dogs (of war) bark, the Iran-China strategic caravan rolls on.
Pepe Escobar is a Eurasia-wide geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties.
(The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)
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Iranians mark the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by IRNA)
Millions of Iranians have taken to the streets across the country to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1979.
The rallies in the capital Tehran began at 9:30 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, with demonstrators from various social strata and different parts of the city marching toward the iconic Azadi (Freedom) Square.
People waved photos of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and legendary General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a 2020 US terrorist attack in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, as well as the martyrs of the Revolution.
Iranian people mark the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by Fars news agency)
The flight of colored balloons and iridescent papers from the Azadi Tower, the performance of professional parachutists of the Armed Forces and the mass recital of Iran’s national anthem were among the celebratory events held in the Azadi Square.
On the eve of the 44th anniversary, fireworks displays were performed in Tehran and other cities at 9:00 p.m. overnight, as people chanted Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest) in an expression of support for the Islamic Revolution.
Covered by 6,000 media personnel across the country, the foot processions, which came after three years of motorcade marches due to the coronavirus pandemic, were held in 1,400 Iranian cities and 38,000 villages.
An Iranian demonstartor flashes the victory sign on the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by Fars news agency)
The mass rallies on the 22nd of Bahman in the Solar Calendar, which corresponds with February 11, are held each year with tremendous patriotic fervor in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian nation overthrew the despotic regime of Pahlavi, which was fully supported by the United States in the winter of 1979. The struggle against the shah regime reached full fruition on February 11, 1979.
By December 1978, millions of Iranians had taken to the streets in protest against the policies of the shah – Shah – on a regular basis.
Imam Khomeini returned to Iran from exile on February 1, 1979. He was received by millions of people weeks after the departure of the shah in mid-January 1979.
The collapse of the Pahlavi regime became certain on February 11 when the military renounced its loyalty to the shah and joined the Revolution.
Raeisi: Bahman 22nd day of victory of ‘truth over falsity’
Delivering a speech at the Azadi Square, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi lauded the 22nd of Bahman as the day of the triumph of “truth over falsity,” the day of the victory of “the oppressed over the arrogant,” and the realization of the “miracle of the century.”
Raeisi said the epic day put an end to tyranny and dependence and marked the beginning of independence, freedom and the Islamic Republic, adding that the day brought about the crystallization of the will of the great nation of Iran.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi delivers a speech at the iconic Azadi (Freedom) Square on the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by president.ir)
Crowds of millions in Iran… Why?
Stressing that both the establishment and the continuation of the Pahlavi regime was against the nation’s will and accompanied with a coup d’état, the Iranian president said, “They committed crimes and treason during their rule, and they were unconcerned about [Iranian people’s] great capacities, and only cared for the pleasure of the global hegemony and the United States.”
“Pahlavi’s despotic rule only brought backwardness to this nation and country,” Raeisi added, “They came to power against the principles of the Constitution and with a coup.”
‘Enemy cannot stand Iran’s achievements’
Pointing to the country’s achievements in various areas, including science and technology, economy, defense, health and medicine, Raeisi said, “Today, we rank first in the region in many fields and we are in the fourth, fifth and sixth place in many arenas in the world. This is for our self-discovery, self-confidence, and reliance on God. Our dear nation has conquered many peaks but the enemy cannot stand it.”
The president said when the enemy saw that the country was progressing in all fields and was not stalled, they started hatching another plot and thought that they could stop the country with chaos.
“They implemented the chaos project and thought that they could bring the country to a standstill with turmoil, and for this reason, they launched a hybrid war in this field,”
Raeisi noted, referring to the recent violent riots after the mid-September death of a woman in Tehran.
“They initiated a combined work in the form of a political, economic, media, psychological and perceptual warfare, unaware that the Iranian nation knows them and their tricks.”
The president underlined, “Today, despite the threats and sanctions, Islamic Iran enjoys the growth of fixed capital, investment growth, economic growth, and growth in other indices.”
Iran in ‘claimant’ position in nuclear issue
Elsewhere in his speech, Raeisi said Iran stands in the position of a “claimant” in the nuclear issue, adding, “We have accepted the inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and these inspections continue. The agency has for 15 times announced that Iran has no involvement in nuclear activities, but this is you who have a nuclear warhead, you have a nuclear bomb, and you are in the position of the accused.”
Pointing to the fight against terrorism, Raeisi said Iran is also in the position of the claimant, noting, “You formed, supported and armed Daesh; and scourged the lives of Muslim people, but the Islamic Republic sacrificed dear General Soleimani in the fight against Daesh. You are the accused and must be held accountable to the world and humanity.”
The Iranian president also touched on the issue of Palestine and Afghanistan, saying, “Seventy years of oppression of the Palestinian people as well as 35,000 disabled children is the result of your presence in Afghanistan…You committed crimes and acted against human rights, you must answer why you violated human rights so much.”
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Posted on February 12, 2023 by uprootedpalestinians
February 11 2023
Forty-four years on from the Islamic Revolution, Iran boasts a more diversified economy, advances in technology, and major development milestones – despite decades of western sanctions aimed at hindering such progress.
Iran’s economy underwent significant changes after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Prior to the revolution, Iran had a mixed economy with a strong private sector and heavy reliance on oil exports. After the revolution, the government nationalized many industries and implemented an economic system based on central planning and state control.
According to the World Bank, Iran’s economy is dominated by the hydrocarbon sector, agriculture, and services sectors. Although there have been some liberalization efforts, most privatizations have resulted in ownership being transferred from the government to large conglomerates, with the actual private sector playing a smaller role in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Main Sectors
Pre-revolutionary Iran’s economy was primarily comprised of four main sectors, with the oil and mining sector being the largest, accounting for 75 percent of the GDP. The services sector, industry, and agriculture followed with 13 percent, 9 percent, and 2 percent of the GDP respectively.
Over time, Iran has transformed into a diverse economy, with the services sector now being the primary driver, (+57 percent of the GDP). This is followed by the industry and mining sector (19.5 percent), agriculture (10.7 percent), petroleum (approximately 8 percent), and construction with 4.3 percent as of the end of the last Iranian calendar year, 1400, on 20 March, 2022, according to data from the Central Bank of Iran.
Oil, Gas, and Petrochemicals
Iran’s oil sector has faced numerous challenges since the revolution, including western sanctions and the destruction of facilities during the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. While Iran saw its highest crude oil production of 6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 1974, the oil industry has never reached this volume in the past 44 years.
The highest crude oil production recorded after the revolution was 3.8 million bpd in 2018, before the US unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
As part of its policy to reduce crude oil export, Iran has significantly increased the number of its petrochemical plants to not only reduce or totally eliminate its local demands for strategic goods such as gasoline or urea, but to also maximize its foreign currency income by exporting a variety of petrochemical goods which reached $24 billion in the last Iranian year (March 2021-22).
Despite the downturns in crude oil production, Iran has significantly increased its gas production in several major gas fields such as the South Pars, becoming the third largest gas producer after the US and Russia in 2021 by producing 256.7 billion cubic meter of natural gas. While most of Iran’s natural gas production is consumed by the country’s residential, industrial, and power plants, it continues to export a portion of it to neighboring countries such as Iraq and Turkey.
Agriculture
Agriculture has also undergone significant changes since the revolution, with the government placing importance on food security through self-sufficiency. Although production has increased, the sector has faced challenges, including drought, mismanagement, and lack of needed investment to modernize the industry, which have led to a decline in productivity.
Pursuing a self-sufficiency policy for strategic products such as wheat has long been sought as the state’s policy to reduce its dependency. The sector remains an important source of employment and income for rural communities and small farmers, although its share has been decreasing in recent years.
Services
The services sector, including finance, retail, and tourism, has seen the greatest expansion and growth in post-revolutionary Iran. Although recent anti-government protests and government restrictions on the internet have impacted businesses in the sector, the sector has benefited from advancements in technology, which has enabled businesses to reach a wider customer base and enhance their services in both urban and rural areas.
The country’s scientific and technological advancements, combined with its young and highly educated workforce, has made the services sector the main contributor to the GDP and the primary source of job opportunities.
Industry & Mining
In recent decades, Iran has developed a wide range of industries including petrochemicals, automotive, mining, and manufacturing. The country now produces minerals like iron ore, copper, and gold, and the manufacturing sector has grown to produce goods like textiles, food products, steel, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods.
These are just some of the main technological and industrial advances that Iran has achieved over the past decades either by expanding and modernizing the previously existing industries in the pre-revolution era or by creating them from scratch
Employment
According to the latest data by Iran’s Statistic’s Center, the largest sector of employment in Iran is the service sector, with 51.3 percent of the country’s workforce, followed by the industry sector with 34.6 percent, and the agriculture sector with 14.3 percent.
The current unemployment rate in Iran is 8.2 percent, the lowest it has been in 17 years, although high unemployment rates still persist among the youth (27 percent) and women (29.5 percent).
Iran’s ‘high human development’
The overall advancements in Iran’s economy have contributed significantly to the improvement of its ranking in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI). Iran’s HDI improved from 0.601 in 1990 to 0.774 in 2021, putting it at 76th place among countries ranked by HDI – in the top tier of states that have achieved the high human development category, and ahead of China, India, and Brazil.
According to the UNDP, the country has made substantial progress in the three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
The challenges ahead
Despite 44 years of transformation, Iran’s economy faces a number of persistent challenges that threaten its growth and stability. Sanctions and political tensions with the west continue to limit Iran’s access to the international financial system and hinder its ability to trade, something officials in Tehran describe as “economic warfare.”
Additionally, mismanagement by the government, dependence on oil exports, high inflation rates, high unemployment, and limited foreign investment present major obstacles to the country’s economic progress. Although Iran has a large and well-educated workforce, it needs investment in key sectors such as technology, infrastructure, and manufacturing to unlock its full potential.
However, political, legal, and operational uncertainties, as well as capital flight, are also hindering investment and growth. According to the World Bank’s MENA Economic Update report, Iran’s real GDP was projected to grow by 2.9 percent in 2022 and 2.2 percent in 2023, a downward revision from previous forecasts. As long as sanctions and tensions with the west remain high, the outlook for Iran’s economy will remain uncertain and its growth will likely be limited.
Bleak but not hopeless
Despite its progress over the past 44 years, Iran remains a vastly underutilized market, missing out on opportunities and international investment worth billions that has led to its absence in the global supply chain despite its vast industrial, manufacturing, and scientific advances.
The economy is still grappling with high inflation, a plummeting currency, corruption, and limited access to global markets. The poverty rate which had exceeded 25 percent in the 1970s, dropped to below 10 percent in 2014, but has been on the rise again in the aftermath of major economic downturns and intensified sanctions since 2018, reaching as high as 27.6 percent in 2019. As such, the country’s ailing economy has become a major source of discontent among its youthful population.
While the situation in Iran’s economy may appear bleak, it is important to note that it has not yet reached a breaking point. The country is backed by a large, educated population, strong universities, and innovative startups that provide resilience and flexibility in the face of change, as seen repeatedly over the past decades.
The situation may continue as long as the sanctions and tensions with the West – especially in the aftermath of the Ukraine war and Iran’s strategy of the look to the East – remains high, keeping the Iranian economy ticking with limited growth much lower than its full capacity.
While Tehran continues to proactively pursue trade and economic growth with its neighbors and alternative partners outside the western-led global financial system – such as through accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), its upcoming free trade agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and its application to join the Global South’s BRICS+ expanded format – it remains to be seen to what extend these measures will assist the Islamic Republic to make up for its current economic constraints.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei addresses a group of Iranian Air Force commanders and personnel in Tehran, Iran, on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Khamenei.ir)
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has underlined the need for national unity, saying the enemies are bent on sowing divisions and fueling mistrust among people as part of their malign designs against the country.
“Among our essential needs at the moment is national unity. National unity acts as a bulwark and formidable barrier against enemies. National unity is what played the principal role in the victory of the [1979 Islamic] Revolution and its progress in the following years. We need to double down on the promotion of national unity,” the Leader told a group of Iranian Air Force commanders and personnel in Tehran on Wednesday.
Ayatollah Khamenei underscored that a vibrant revolution is one that can protect itself against potential harm, noting that the Islamic Revolution has thwarted major threats and continues to tread down the path of advancement and improvement.
Every year on February 8, Iranian Air Force commanders and personnel meet the Leader to mark the historic declaration of allegiance of Iranian Air Force officers with the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini on February 8, 1979.
The meeting is viewed as a turning point leading to the victory of the Islamic Revolution three days later, sealing the fate of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in Iran.
The Leader said the enemies are hell-bent on bringing Iran’s Islamic establishment to its knees by means of creating discord and mistrust in the society.
“Even though US statesmen have frequently declared that they are not after regime change in Iran, they continue to draw up plans on how to topple the Islamic establishment when they meet up in private political circles,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
“One reason for such animosity is that the Islamic Republic has cut off the US’ hands from an important, strategic and profit-making region with rich mineral and human resources. Another reason is that the Islamic Republic has been the flag bearer of the call to independence and resistance against excessive demands,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted.
“Hope for the future will be dashed once mistrust prevails among political factions and blocs, social groups, and between the government and the nation,” he said.
A group of Iranian Air Force personnel listen to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Khamenei.ir)
Ayatollah Khamenei also stated that differences are inevitable, but they must not turn into fault lines.
The Leader also lauded the Iranian Armed Forces’ capabilities in the production of various military gear and implementation of large-scale projects, saying that the Iranian Army is now much more constrictive and innovative compared to the deposed and US-backed Pahlavi era.
“While Iranian military experts did not have the right in the past to even observe or touch the equipment of a fighter jet bought exorbitantly from the US, they manufacture their indigenous aircraft nowadays,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
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On February 1st, 1979, millions of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and the roads surrounding Mehrabad Airport to welcome Imam Khomeini as he returned from his exile in Paris despite threats to bomb the plane he was onboard. The photos below depict the popular celebrations marking his return.
Tehran – The courtyard in front of the main entrance to the Imam Khomeini Husseiniya was crowded. Mothers sat in rows and served breakfast to their children. The host offered cookies and milk, and the children and their mothers experienced a taste sweeter than honey.
The children ate the cookies quietly. While they ran in the yard, they accidentally dropped crumbs on the floor. None of them felt estranged. They felt as if they were guests at their grandfather’s house and had been comfortable for a long time.
Some mothers tried to gather the cookie crumbs by sweeping the rugs on the floor. The warm atmosphere filling the air turned the day into one of the most unique in the lives of many attendees who grew up under the fatherly umbrella of the Leader.
This place is engraved in the hearts of the Iranian people. Anyone who came before me and those who come after me will regard it as their father’s house. The children’s sense of comfort and the mothers’ sense of duty towards keeping the house clean also stem from this belief.
It seemed that a mother was spreading a small, seemingly empty blanket on the floor to tidy it up. But she was actually trying to wrap her sleeping baby in the blanket. The baby was still very small and made the blanket appear empty.
One lady asked the mother: “How old is he?”
The mother replied, “five days.”
Another woman said: “Mashallah, five days! He doesn’t look it.”
The mother finished what she was doing and answered her: “I cannot leave a five-day-old baby. In addition, I would like him to breathe the air of this Husseiniya. He will be a soldier for the leader of this Husseiniya, God willing.”
Another woman joined the conversation and said, “You did well bringing him with you. This is how we raised our children. [We took them with us] to marches in the snow and under the rain, bombs, and missiles [the Sacred Defense stage] for them to get acquainted with the Islamic Revolution, the leader, and his approach.”
Then, she pointed with her hand to the inside of the Imam Khomeini Hussainiya and continued: “Children are made in and from this Hussainiya.”
I passed by the mothers who were still feeding their children, then entered the Husseiniya. An inscription on the wall immediately caught my eye: “Most of the good is in women.”
As always, the writing on this mural highlights the focus of the gathering. A hadeeth by Imam al-Sadiq [PBUH] was specially placed on the wall to decorate and convey the message of this meeting.
I sat on one of the chairs and looked at the rest of the attendees. Some came to the Husseiniya earlier. Others woke up before their usual routine and queued in line to enter. All of them were awaiting the arrival of their dear host with longing and enthusiasm.
The wait did not last long.
The rows of chairs were quickly filled, and the remaining attendees leaned on the wall of the Husseiniya. They were not discouraged by the lack of chairs and were determined to sit on the floor or stand by the wall until the end of the meeting.
This generation of women looks up to the host as a dear father.
His Eminence entered through the door, with the attendees raising their clenched fists and repeating the slogan loudly: “We are your soldiers, O Khamenei. We obey your command, O Khamenei”.
A group of women collapsed with tears streaming down their faces. This was not the first time that this Husseiniya has witnessed a special meeting where women talk to the Leader about their thoughts without any hindrance, get to express their pain, feelings, and demands, and ask him questions.
Nevertheless, such meetings leave a special sweetness in the hearts of those attending since some of them wrote letters last year asking that the celebration of Lady Zahraa’s birthday be marked with the presence of maddahis.
They also asked the Leader of the Revolution to hold a special meeting for women, and here he was. His Eminence at their service.
The speakers included a diverse spectrum of individuals, in terms of knowledge, activities, and interests, and in terms of clothing and appearance.
One lady, wearing an abaya, eloquently complained that fewer women were employed in making major decisions in the country. Another, wearing a pink scarf, raised the demands of housewives.
The presence of people like Maryam Nakhashan was especially important. She is a first-class lawyer with a law degree from Germany. There was also Mahdia Sadat Mehwar, a producer, director, and cultural activist.
She said that she entered the field of cultural activities because she was influenced by one of the speeches of the Leader of the Revolution in the early nineties.
She considered herself the fruit of this movement and the fruit of this country. Then, she compared the role of women and their rights in the Islamic and Western civilizations and how it affected the absence of women in various cultural fields that cause problems more than anything else. What she said received the praise and support of His Eminence, the Leader of the Revolution.
Under the encouragement of the revolution and the self-confidence it gave them and the right path that guided them, the speakers freely shared their opinions and ideas with their Leader, whose attention and respect encouraged each one of them.
Important points were raised that were worth thinking about. Yet, the meeting was nothing like traditional formal meetings. It was more like the daughters of a family sat around their father to talk to him and tease him. So much so that one of the Arabic-speaking attendees, who was not on the list of speakers, also seized the opportunity and recited verses of poetry in Arabic praising Haj Qassem. She sent greetings to the people of Khuzestan in the language that the Leader of the Revolution considers the most beautiful.
One of the beneficial aspects of the meeting was the presence of different Iranian ethnic groups – Persians, Turks, Kurds, Lurs, Arabs, Baluchis, Bakhtiaris, Turkmens, Luks, Gilaks, Maznises, and Sistanis. Some of them wore traditional outfits reminiscent of their culture. Others wrote phrases expressing the greetings of their ethnic groups and provinces in the palm of their hands, as they gathered under one roof and were overwhelmed with longing for the Leader’s words.
The comfort of those present, the level of knowledge of the speakers, and the humility of the Leader of the Revolution drew a beautiful picture. Imam Khamenei, at the beginning of his speech, expressed several times his comfort in holding such a meeting. His Eminence also expressed his satisfaction, which indicated his humility and how he benefitted from the words of the representatives of the women.
After that, the Leader began his speech by explaining and summarizing the current situation of women in the world and the Islamic principles related to them. He made several points and cited previous speakers. This underscored the accuracy of his follow-up to the topics and his exemplary sophistication.
Despite the fact that the Leader’s speech was deep and accurate, it was full of softness and expressions of kindness and tenderness that he used when addressing his daughters. His words were remarkably warm and those listening never got tired.
His Eminence spoke for an hour that benefited the attendees for a lifetime. The Leader of the Revolution spoke about family and its importance. He stood as a father to all his daughters, whether those present at the meeting or those who will read the speech or listen to it later.
They listened to these important words, in which he highlighted the unique characteristics of a woman as a wife and a mother within the family unit. Therefore, she is the air the family breathes and cannot live without.
At the same time, His Eminence mentioned that managing a home does not mean being confined to it and dealing with emotions. Instead, it must be understood in its correct form: not neglecting the home, the family, and the basic needs of children in terms of education, faith, and morals.
In conjunction with activism in society, efforts must be made to raise public and even global awareness to explain the reality for women and for attention to be placed on whatever duties or desires they feel.
Time flew by, and it was time to say goodbye and end the speech. At the end of the meeting, Imam Khamenei mentioned a nice anecdote about a few women who might violate the rights of their husbands, which made those present laugh.
This anecdote came after his careful observation about the oppression of some women by the hoarse voices of men, their vast stature, and physical strength. He also highlighted the need to firmly apply Islamic rules and legislation to protect women.
The Leader then got up, and the ladies stood up to pay their respects. However, no one wanted to leave. Out of respect for his daughters, His Eminence stood longer than usual as his meetings ended.
Some of the women chanted slogans, others waved their hands, some carried their children in their arms so that they could enjoy looking at the face of their Leader in the last moments of the meeting. Others stood on their chairs for a final glimpse of their Leader.
Some had tears flowing down their faces just like when His Eminence first appeared. The only difference now was that these tears were filled with joy as well as a deep longing that afflicted their hearts from that moment on.
Iranian President Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi held talks with Sunni and Shia clerics in Kurdistan Province during his one-day trip to the western region on Thursday.
The president met the clerics after taking part in the congregational prayers at noon.
During the talks, the clerics spoke about their issues of concern and raised their demands. The president listened to them patiently and issued required orders to address their problems.
Before that meeting, Raisi met with the families of some of the victims of the recent unrest in Kurdistan, including the families of the security forces killed in the violence.
He said that security is a red line for the Islamic Republic, adding that all those who have caused trouble for people during the recent riots should be brought to justice.
Raisi also said that the same movement, which has always been hostile to the Islamic Republic and tried to create insecurity in Kurdistan during the first years after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, tried to misuse the recent events to again target the security in the province.
But the movement failed in its attempts due to resistance by the people of Kurdistan province, Raisi underlined.
Also, during his trip to Kurdistan, the president inaugurated the project to supply drinkable water to the provincial capital Sanandaj.
The project, which transfers water from Azad Dam to the purification facility in the city, was completed over a course of 20 months.
It is among mega water projects that Raisi’s administration is conducting in urban areas.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei underlined that in every era, the presence of the Basij [mobilization] forces emphasized that the Islamic Revolution is still reviving, pointing to that in Iran there are millions of officially-registered Basji members, in addition to the other unregistered millions, who are all active in the Iranian society.
Imam Khamenei made the remarks on Saturday morning as he received massive numbers of Basij members at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah in Tehran marking the Basij Week. Additionally, five million Basij members from all over Iran took part in this meeting through videoconference participation.
His Eminence noted that the mobilization is one of the blessed innovations of our prominent Imam Khomeini, explaining that in such days, and nine years after the formation of the mobilization forces, the late Imam gave his sublime speech praising the Basij, in which he said “it is the center of passion and the unknown martyrs, and a fruitful tree.”
“It is my honor and pride that I belong to those Basij members,” Imam Khamenei said.
The Basij is not just a fighting institution, it is more sublime and has to do with the cultural, rhetorical, and ideological mobilization… this culture is the pure service of the nation and its people, Sayyed Ali Khamenei went on to say.
Highlighting the importance of the Basij culture, Imam Khamenei explained that it is to dig in mud to support the flood-hit households, and to be at the forefront in fighting the pandemic and to possibly die to save the lives of the patients; the Basij culture is not to be tired while supporting the believers, and without expecting praise for doing so.
“The Basij forces are daring, don’t fear the enemy, and don’t give it a chance to move on. They also have the potential and capabilities to keep up with every step of the Revolution,” Imam Khamenei also noted.
“In every era, the presence of the Basij forces emphasized that the Revolution is still reviving; the Revolution is alive despite the will of the enemies who can’t withstand this word.”
Imam Khamenei highlighted that during the latest attacks across Iran, the Basij members put themselves in danger to prevent people from facing oppression, adding that those forces have a prominent position within the Muslim world.
With respect to the conspiracy against Iran, Imam Khamenei pointed to the great importance of the Islamic Republic for its huge resources and its geographical position between the East and the West. This is why the colonial front has been working against it, His Eminence explained, adding that the Zionist entity has been implanted as a camp for Europe and the US, and they made it dominant in the Middle East.
“When the Islamic Revolution in Iran emerged victorious, it twisted all of the West’s the balances and calculations… it is a phenomenon that dealt the arrogant powers a major blow and left them shocked and lost. The West worked to overthrow the revolutionary government in Iran and to eliminate it, and this is why they imposed the 8-year war, but Saddam Hussein failed in this war and they understood that they cannot confront Iran,” His Eminence also noted.
Meanwhile, the West tended to target the countries that have ties with Iran, in which it admitted to operating in six countries that are Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia; however, Iran’s role in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon contributed to foiling the US scheme to target the Islamic Republic through those countries.
“Martyr Qassem Soleimani played the most prominent role in Iran’s victory against the US scheme in the region,” Imam Khamenei mentioned, making sure to underscore the Basij forces’ role in confronting the terrorist group Daesh, which was formed by the enemies and attacked the holy shrines.
On the nuclear talks, Imam Khamenei said the enemy wants the nuclear deal to prevent Iran from producing weapons and drones to defend itself. Additionally, a group of the unwary individuals at home repeat the words of the enemies, which aim at weakening Iran.
As His Eminence highlighted the importance of confronting every rioter at home, he warned that the scale of the battle is much wider, advising the Basij members not to forget that our main and true confrontation is against the global arrogance.
Imam Khamenei felt sorry for some of what can be read in newspapers and on social media platforms, which consider that we must solve the problem with the US to stop the riot. When we committed to our obligations according to the nuclear deal, the US didn’t, His Eminence said, adding that our problem with the US could not be solved through negotiations, and Washington doesn’t accept but obtaining one privilege after the other.
Who is the Iranian citizen who is keen on his nation but is ready to compromise to the US on Iran’s power? Imam Khamenei asked. “The enemies’ media outlets publish lies and fake news whose content is misleading.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Imam Khamenei praised the members of Iran’s national team who have pleased the country by clinching their first victory on Friday during a World Cup match.
“The enemies attempt to infiltrate through our forces,” Imam Khamenei told the Basji members, advising them to beware in this regard.
The positions of the Iranian Leader of the Islamic Revolution in front of Basij
Ahmad Farhat, Translated and Edited by Mohammad Salami
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed, during a speech last month, that , the most important factor of strength in the axis of resistance is the Islamic Republic of Iran, wondering where Palestine would be without the Iranian role.
The signing of Camp David Accords crowned the US-brokered Egyptian concessions to the Israeli enemy, knowing that the most prominent event in this context was the visit of the Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat to the Zionist entity in November, 1977.
Signing of Camp David Peace Accord (President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin)
Since the end of the 1973 war and the advent of Egypt’s settlements era, the military formulas in the region had changed. The Arab countries, consequently, could not fight on one front against the Israeli enemy which managed to hold bilateral ‘peace’ agreements with the Arab countries in order to avoid facing them altogether.
The Arabs suffered then from a wide case of frustration amid the collapse of the Common Arab Security.
With respect to the Zionist entity, the Arab countries would no longer be able to attack ‘Israel’ without the participation of Egypt despite the fact that the Israeli enemy continued carrying out its occupation and expansion schemes. In this regard, the Zionist enemy invaded Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 and struck the Palestinian resistance.
The following video shows the Palestinian resistance fighters leaving Lebanon in 1982:
Hope Rising in the East
Amid the tragic developments, Imam Ruhollah Khomeini led the Islamic Revolution in Iran to a historic victory in 1979. Just 8 days later, the Islamic Republic identified its foreign policy, granting the keys of the Israeli embassy in Tehran to Yasser Arafat, the late head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This established a new epoch of a strategic Iranian support to the Palestinian cause.
Since its victory, the Islamic Revolution in Iran rejected and confronted all the schemes which targeted the Palestinian cause, providing all the possible means of support to the Palestinian resistance and intifada. The Iranian authorities have been also supporting and funding the Palestinian camps in the diaspora in order to maintain the steadfastness of the refugees.
On August 7, 1979, late founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini designated the last Friday of Ramadan holy month as the International Al-Quds Day. Since then, Al-Quds Day has become a day all Muslims and oppressed people across the world rally for Al-Quds and Palestine against the Zionist occupation.
The Islamic Republic in Iran has been also supporting the Palestinian resistance factions which have committed to the rules of Islam.
Axis of Resistance
The axis of resistance led by the Islamic Republic of Iran engaged in several wars in Lebanon and Palestine. Iran supported founding Hezbollah Islamic Resistance that cooperated with the Palestinian resistance to reach victories.
This cooperation appeared clearly during Al-Quds Sword battle in 2021 between Gaza resistance and the Israeli enemy when Hezbollah, IRGC, and Hamas established a chamber of military operations in Beirut during the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza.
This axis, which has sacrificed a large number of martyrs crowned by the former head of IRGC’s Al-Quds Force martyr General Qassem Suleimani, has set praying at Al-Aqsa Mosque as a strategic target.
The video that follows the huge support demonstrated by the Iranian people to the Palestinian cause on various occasions, including mainly Al-Quds Day.
Iranians marked the US embassy takeover anniversary with huge nationwide rallies.
Aban 13 [November 4] is the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance in Iran, on which Iranians gather in rallies to commemorate the day.
On Aban13, 1358 A.H. [Nov 4, 1979], Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran. On the same day the previous year, a group of Iranian high school and university students had been killed by the security forces of the Shah regime in a protest demonstration.
This day, 43 years ago, I was detained atop the Statue of Liberty in New York for taking part in a peaceful protest against the Jimmy Carter administration for hosting Mohammad Reza Pahlavi after the popular Islamic Revolution toppled the West-backed monarch.
The entire Liberty Island housing the France-gifted colossal neoclassical sculpture was immediately evacuated.
Six of us protesting against the US government’s decision chained ourselves to the statue while holding huge banners condemning Washington’s continued support for the ruthless despot.
We were soon arrested, strip-searched, handcuffed behind the back, and held in detention for over eight hours before being transferred to a jail in Manhattan.
The inhumane treatment meted out to us by the American police and the country’s legal system following the protest action, which coincided with the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, reinforced my belief that the exaggerated Western claims of upholding human rights were hollow.
I came to realize that the right to free speech and other so-called “liberties” outlined in the First Amendment were baseless publicity tools to advance the US military-industrial complex’s inhumane, discriminatory, and hegemonic ambitions across the globe.
The students who took over the US Embassy in Tehran – which later came to be known in Iran as the ‘Den of Espionage’ – exposed through classified documents found there that the sprawling compound located in the heart of the Iranian capital was used to orchestrate vicious coup plots to overthrow the nascent Islamic Republic.
The students later published the damning documents in the form of multi-volume books to reveal the sinister agenda of American “diplomats” stationed in Iran, but the incriminating documents were never allowed to be published in the United States.
After the evacuation of the island housing the Statue of Liberty, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other US security and intelligence agencies tried to get us to unchain ourselves from the statue promising to set us free without charges.
We did comply, only to be firmly handcuffed and detained and held without food or water until being transferred in the evening to the Manhattan jail, where we decided to go on hunger strike in protest against the inhumane treatment meted out to us. We were placed in a dingy cell, where jail guards deliberately staged mocking moves to break our will by obnoxiously eating in front of us.
Eventually, we appeared in court and gave a bond to reappear for sentencing about a month later. We were slapped with a $50 fine and 6-month probation, which meant that we had to report to a police authority every month to prove we were behaving well.
Shortly after my return to Chicago — a major mid-western city where I lived and attended college – I found out that its City Council had submitted a proposal for deporting all Iranian students enrolled in colleges and universities across the city at the time.
I was asked by a group of fellow Iranian students to represent them at a hearing deliberating on the passage of the racist legislation. When I attended the sham hearing I was shocked to witness an American student-activist testifying against the proposal being harshly taunted by city aldermen (council members) with unbelievably obscene language and then brutally beaten and dragged out of the hearing room by police officers.
As I was awaiting my turn to testify and wondering about my fate after testifying, I simply started smiling at the mean-looking lawmakers, only to be cussed at angrily and asked “what the F— are you laughing at?”
I then decided to walk out of the room after reminding the city legislators that there was no point in testifying since their minds were already fixed on something.
I later learned that the draft proposal never became law because it defied every basic right outlined in the US Constitution under the preamble, “We the People”.
Today Iranians annually observe November 4 as the National Day Against Global Arrogance by taking part in demonstrations from the compound that formerly housed the US embassy in Tehran to recall what took place on this day back in 1979.
It’s still relevant as the US continues to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, including Iran.
This year, the countrywide demonstrations drew a much larger crowd than in previous years with people from all walks of life denouncing the Western regimes for instigating deadly riots in the country through media and political campaigns to bring about a “regime change” in the Islamic Republic.
Iranians appear ever more determined to resist and rigorously campaign against all US-led ploys to meddle not only in their nation but the world over.
Mohsen Badakhsh is an educator and freelance journalist.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:
Iranian President Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi pointed to the western countries’ support for the recent riots in Iran, saying that the sanctions and threats will not be able to hinder the Iranian nation’s progress.
Raisi addressed a public rally in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Friday, which was held as part of nationwide rallies to mark the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance on the anniversary US embassy takeover on November 4, 1979.
Ibrahim Raisi responds to Biden: We will not be your cash cow
“Today’s symbol of arrogance is the ruling system in the United States that is according to Imam Khomeini [RA], the Great Satan,” Raisi said at the beginning of his speech.
“Arrogance seeks to destroy many nations and peoples in the world and endanger their material and spiritual interests in order to secure its interests,” he added.
“Had it not been for the move taken by students who followed the Imam’s path, the fight against arrogance would be incomplete,” Raisi underlined, adding that the “Day of Fight against Global Arrogance is a symbol of Iran’s might.”
“The President of the United States uttered words out of distraction and said that they are looking for Iran’s liberation. Mr. President! Iran was freed 43 years ago and got out of your captivity and we will never be your milk cow [cohort] again,” Raisi told Joe Biden.
He then added that “The Iranian nation has declared these positions many times through its insight and its good knowledge of the enemy.”
Raisi further noted that the younger generation in Iran has the same view toward the United States as their fathers and mothers did at the time of the Islamic Revolution.
He pointed to the western countries’ support for the rioters in the recent riots in Iran, saying that the country will not be intimidated by their sanctions and threats.
Raisi also noted that the sanctions and threats will not be able to hinder the Iranian nation’s progress, pointing out that the country’s economy is recovering from the sanctions and it is advancing while the pressures are still in place, which is why the US and western countries are angry.
“Do you really think that we will be stopped by your threats and sanctions? You are looking to slow down the pace of the Iranian nation’s movement, but that’s just a dream! Our men and women will not allow your malicious dreams to come true. They wanted to isolate Iran, but they failed.”
Raisi also pointed out that Iran has grown too strong and that there are not any problems in the region than can be solved without Iran’s role.
Everybody should learn that the Islamic Revolution has gained a major progress thanks to the blessings of the martyrs; we are strong because of our martyrs, the recommendations of late Imam Khomeini, and Leader [Imam Khamenei], as well as the people’s presence in this arena, the Iranian president noted.
The enemy wants to target our unity and solidarity, and to prevent students from studying at our universities. The enemy wants to target our self-esteem, but has failed to harm Iran’s security and stability, Raisi also stated.
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Ibrahim Raisi responds to Biden: We will not be your cash cow
Iran: Millions of people march in support of the Iranian regime
So this is what it’s like being outside of Europe during the repression of their long-running, bi-annual (spring and fall) violent anti-government and anti-EU protests? There’s barely a sound in the mainstream media about them.
Every year since the pan-European project went fully online, 2009, it’s only during the two-year Covid era when Europe has failed to be ablaze with social chaos during their two mild seasons. I assumed the non-European West had been aware, but now I see that their media couldn’t care less.
In France, Italy, Czechia, Germany and elsewhere anti-NATO (i.e. anti-war), anti-capitalism (i.e. anti-austerity/right-wing economics) and anti-government (i.e. anti-liberalism) activism has virulently returned. But anyone remotely paying attention to continental politics realizes this autumn’s protests are not an exception but a return to the norm.
So, of course they are protesting NATO, austerity and police brutality in Europe right now – that’s what they do every autumn, and to no real effect.
What is interesting is to compare the protests in Europe with the current protests against the laws on modesty in public dress in Iran.
In 2019 France, amid the brutal and unprecedented Yellow Vest crackdown, a crowd chanted for despised riot cops to commit suicide – the mainstream media vented their indignation on behalf of the cops but remained silent on the dozen dead and scores of permanently crippled protesters. In 2022 Iran viral videos (all absent in the Western media) have shown a suspected plainclothes cop being horrifically set on fire; madmen shooting blindly into crowds; people falsely posing as policemen (and then enacting who knows what carnage in an effort to discredit the government). Like many in Iran, I don’t even attribute these obvious acts of armed, anti-revolution rebellion to legitimate protesters but to foreign spy agencies. The point must be underlined: Western protesters have nothing like this to contend with, and it’s even hard for them to comprehend the existence of such obstacles.
In 2015 France after the Charlie Hebdo attack Paris expected the world to mourn for their instigating cartoonists. Just this week Daesh has just accepted responsibility for over 50 casualties at a mosque, but the massacre of Iranian faithful gets ignored or diminished by Western media (France24 headline: “Several people killed as gunmen open fire at shrine in Iran’s Shiraz”). I doubt any “Je suis Shirazi” (I am from Shiraz) campaigns will be demanded by Western NGO executives.
At last month’s United Nations general assembly I took a photo of a book put on display by Iran’s delegation, titled “The Encyclopedia of Iranian Terror Victims”. It contains 17,000 names of those killed since 1979 by the Western-supported MKO, Daesh, the Israelis, the House of Saud and others. A victim of the United States, the renowned anti-terror hero General Qassem Soleimani, was recently included. When terrorists killed 3,000 Americans in 2001 the retribution was the destruction of two entire countries.
Certainly this is the coup de grâce: The protests in support of the Iranian government and revolution continue to be (and have been since 1979) exponentially larger than the anti-government protests, whereas the only pro-government protests in France since 2009 were the rather comical, one-time “Red Scarves” of 2019.
Nobody is protesting in favor of what we can term the “pan-European revolution” because it continues to only gut the quality of life for the average European citizen. Contrarily, and much like those I have reported on from Cuba, the pro-government protests in Iran exist in such numbers and tenacity because the Iranian Islamic Revolution has created so much improvement, redistributed so much wealth and redistributed so much political & cultural power to the average Iranian.
The laws for modesty in dress – a demand made on both men and women, it must be said – is actually an excellent example of that last fact.
In the name of openness I am willing to discuss the worth of Iranian mores with Westerners who cannot even name five cities in Iran, but all discussions of the modesty laws should start with – as far as I am concerned – this main point: The 1979 revolution elevated the mores and culture (and dress style) of the average Iranian (the working class) for the first time in Iranian history. The mores and styles of Iran’s Western-aping elite minority – which in 1979 was 5% of the country, at the very most – ceased to be elevated. Without grasping this realization – which is never related in Western media – a Westerner’s opinion on the anti-modesty law protest amounts to them telling Iranians to be less Iranian and more like them.
Europe is not concerned with modesty in dress – and this is their sovereign right – so the differences in the issues being protested in Europe and Iran are obviously quite different.
One has had its elite cut off their source of oil and energy – and to hell with the consequences on the average person – whereas the other is forced to nurture its people despite a “zero dollars in oil sales” blockade/war.
One has given up any semblance of military sovereignty – France gave in and joined NATO in that fateful year of 2009 – whereas the other is an island of sovereignty surrounded by a sea of US military bases.
One, France, has been routinely condemned by human rights groups for police brutality whereas the last time I was in Iran – July of this year – it was impossible for me (as I was coming from cop-filled Paris) to not remark on the lack of anything but traffic cops on the streets of Tehran. I asked multiple Iranians if they believed plainclothes police were lurking around, and I can truly report that not one person believed that there were.
So it’s not that the current protests, strikes and police brutality in Europe are uninteresting, it’s that they are so routine that Westerners are apparently immune to them; or are denied the truth about them.
Exceptionally brave groups like the Yellow Vests prove how historically high anti-government sentiment is in Europe, but if they cannot break through Western arrogance (or apathy) about the failures of Western Liberal Democracy then who can, I wonder?
What the politicians and mainstream media of Western Liberal Democracies rely on is constant demonization, finger-pointing and war hysteria in order to deflect from their own regular turmoil. Too bad for them that this not enough to stop their own citizens from protesting them.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His latest book is ‘France’s Yellow Vests: Western Repression of the West’s Best Values’. He is also the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’.
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:
“Hitting, succeeding, and capturing, all these things, if they are not with a spiritually sacred dimension, they are nothing but defeat.”[1]
– Imam Khomeini
Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, a response to a larger compound war that had percolated for several years, has been the subject of much quasi analyses. A vast majority of the compositions involves ad hoc cursory descriptions that concentrate on the “mechanics” of sub-operations within the operation, laical aims beneath the goal, secularly-defined methods & means, and varied temporal aftereffects discharged into a future material outcome that is concealed for now. In all these though, the critical “quintessence” has gone AWOL.
By critical “quintessence”, I mean careful and calculated use of a different kind of compass to navigate and approach the analyses and evaluation of methods, means, and outcomes. The sort of compass that actively and willfully transforms the nature of an exploration into relevant questions. Questions like: How do you measure “success” in a war, or in a battle, or in a military operation? What are the indicators by which you measure that success? Is success defined by the tangible and measureable superiority in domains of land, sea, air, inner space, outer space, and cyberspace? Is it measured by the square kilometers of land that is acquired and brought under control? Or, is it calculated by the number of hearts and minds captured, the number of injured produced, or the number of dead bodies accumulated? Is it in the number prisoners you take? Or, is it, perhaps, measured in Euro, Pound, Dollar, Rial, Yuan, Ruble, gold, silver, bitcoin, cubic feet of oil and gas, fluctuations in stock prices, and the like? Or, is it defined by how fast you announce “Mission Accomplished” while attired in a body gear that has been engineered to cause artificial ‘inflation’ in order to deflect attention from severe defects and shortcomings?
Source: Stephen Jaffe/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. The guy in the middle is George W. Bush Jr. on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln where he delivered his “Mission Accomplished” speech regarding the illegal war of aggression against Iraq on May 1, 2003.
“It was doomed from the beginning by the Kremlin’s ridiculous assumption that Washington would permit the operation to be limited. The widening of the war was guaranteed. The fact that the war has widened is now understood by Russian TV hosts who say the proxy war in Ukraine between the US and Russia is over and Russia now faces a real direct war with the US and its NATO puppets. For Russia to continue in Ukraine, the Kremlin must fight a real war and knock out the government in Kiev and the governmental and civilian infrastructure that permits Ukraine to conduct war without Russian interference and which permits supply avenues for ever more dangerous Western weapons to be acquired by Ukraine. It is stunning that Putin thought he could drive Ukrainian troops out of Donbas and then sign an agreement ending the conflict.”
It appears what the author is essentially suggesting that Russia should have invoked a Russian version of ‘shock and awe’ operation, perhaps similar to what the US executed in Iraq three weeks after which it announced its mission as ‘accomplished’. How did that sort of “real war”, the sort that “knocked out the government and destroyed the governmental and civilian infrastructure” in Iraq worked out for you? How did it work for you in Afghanistan? How has it worked out for your parasitic Zionist regime in West Asia?
At any rate, I am referring to type of exploration that questions the questions and detonates their underlying usual and customary assumptions. To put all that into cognitively more accessible terms to fit my purpose, I may say, anybody can wage a war – that is easy. But to wage a war with the right adversary and to the right proportion and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy (adapting a rhetorical prose attributed to Aristotle).
But who is the right adversary? What is the right proportion? When is the right time? What is the right purpose? And most important of all, how is the right way determined?
The short answer is it depends. A bit longer answer is that it depends on your worldview, belief system, and ethical and moral framework based on which you are engaged in a war and the criteria according to which those belief systems and worldviews define success, and measure and evaluate its key indicators.
Here, I would like to focus on two major competing worldviews (from among several) that define and determine what that “right” is. One of the two worldviews belongs to Estekbar Jahani, or Global Arrogance, represented by US-Anglo-Zionist-West. The other worldview is that of Moghavemat, or the Resistance, represented by the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the nations and groups that are in this camp.
The rationale for examining the first worldview, belonging to the Global Arrogance, is quite obvious. For the most part, this worldview has wreaked havoc on our entire plant and has championed indiscriminate death and destruction anywhere it had been allowed to penetrate. We examine the second worldview, that of the Resistance, for two specific reasons. Firstly, it is the worldview that has been solidly standing up to the first worldview and limiting its spread for some time now. Secondly, it is the worldview that has currently formed a strategic partnership with Russia in her war against US-NATO (which is a segment of US-Anglo-Zionist-West).
I would also like to limit the focus of the essay regarding the indicators of ‘success’ in a war or military operations, on three specific indicators: the right purpose, the right method & tools, and the right proportion.
On with it. We have ample evidence that the first group, the Global Arrogance, believes itself to be the owner of the entire planet and everyone and everything in it. Thus, it arrogates to itself the right to consider anyone, anytime, and anywhere to be the right person, the right time, and right place to attack to get anything it wants if it can do so by getting away at minimum socio-political and economic cost to its clique. They prefer a hit and run sort of approach and pave their paths with blood and tears.
The report card, for the past few decades, of the representatives of the Global Arrogant worldview (US-Anglo-Zionist-West) is colorfully marked by illegal and aggressive wars and military operations against Lebanon (1982-1984), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), Islamic Republic of Iran, Persian Gulf (1987-1988), Panama (1989-1990), Iraq Persian Gulf (1990-1991), Iraq (1991-2003), Somali (1992-1995), Serbia (1992-1995), Haiti (1994-1995), Yugoslavia (1992-1995), Afghanistan (2001-Present), Yemen (2002-Present), Iraq (2003-Present), Pakistan (2004-Present), Somalia (2007-Present), Libya (2011-Present), Uganda (2011-Present), Sudan (2011-Present), and Syria (2014-Present), just to be brief.
For this camp, the right purpose has been $, Power, Oil; the right Methods & Means has been wholesale killing, stealing, lying, cheating, sanctions, torture –pardon me, ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’—of prisoners, terror, chemical, biological, nuclear, and you name it; any means and methods, in short. The most savage, the better. As far as the right proportion is concerned, the limits appear quite limitless:
Leslie Stahl: “We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”
So, this is another definition of “success” for the Global Arrogance:
Source: Images are a selection from a study titled “Living near an active U.S. military base in Iraq is associated with significantly higher hair thorium and increased likelihood of congenital anomalies in infants and children,” (2019). The study was conducted by a team of independent medical researchers. This photo was extracted from the Intercept, available online at: https://theintercept.com/2019/11/25/iraq-children-birth-defects-military/
The more one stirs up the US wars and operations, the worse it stinks. So, let’s move on.
I have better access to evidence regarding the indicators I mentioned with respect to the worldview of the Moghavemat, the Resistance, which is, as stated, represented by the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the nations and groups that are aligned in it. I will therefore draw on field evidence and demonstrate how we might determine the right purpose, the right method & tools, and the right proportion as well as how we evaluate and measure success in various operational domains, within the specific framework rooted in our belief system.
The Sacred Defense (Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988). Saddam of then Iraq, encouraged, fully supported, equipped to his teeth, and financed to no end by the West, the East, and the Middle, attacked the newly constituted Islamic Republic of Iran on Shahrivar 31, 1359 [September 22, 1980]. The attack was illegal, unjustified, and unprovoked. It was a coordinated attack along a 1,280 Kilometer Iran-Iraq border from the north most borderline to the south most shorelines plus the Persian Gulf and several major inner cities’ important infrastructures. The West provided him with the chemical and biological weapons for use and he did not say no.
Naturally, Iran had to defend itself. Let me add here that any religion, school of thought, charter, moral and ethical framework that does not recognize self-defense as an obligation (and not merely as a legitimate right) is not worth the paper on which it is written. Why? Because, people, when they view something as a right, they have this propensity to give up their legitimate and God-given rights easily, willingly, and rather foolishly. However, if they are taught to think of something as a duty and obligation, then they cannot easily let go of their obligation without expecting severe consequences. That expectation of severe consequence has great deterrent value—so we are taught by the Quran:
“Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and intended to expel the Messenger, and they were the first to begin their attack on you? Do you fear them? But Allah has more right that you should fear Him, if you are true believers.” [Tawbah (Chapter 9, Verse 13]
From this verse, we understand that there are at least three types of people with whom we must fight: 1) People who willfully break their oaths, contracts, and any agreement they have made with us. 2) People who attempt to expel us from our land and dislocate us. 3) People who initiate an attack and aggress against us.
In our Sacred Defense against Saddam of Iraq, not just one but all three conditions were met. He tore up the 1975 Algiers agreement; he attacked our land and killed and displaced millions of our people; and he began to actually occupy segments of our land. In response, we had the duty to: 1) Fight him and his army and his allies. 2) Don’t fear any them. 3) Fear only God. So, the motivation, or the purpose for this war, on this end, for the people of Iran was, first and foremost, to fulfill their duties and defend their nation against the aggressors.
With respect to defense, Ayatullah Khamenei has a very interesting elucidation that I’d like to quote here. He says:
“Defense is a part of the identity of a nation that is alive. Any nation that cannot defend itself is not alive. Any nation that does not recognize the importance of defense is not alive, in a manner of speaking, it is not alive. We cannot have eyes and power of analysis to see deep and hostile plot of the Arrogance against Islam, the Revolution, and the Islamic System, yet not think about defending ourselves. God forbid the day this nation and its elected officials to neglect wretched and hostile aggression of Global Arrogance headed by the United States of America.”[2]
As far as material “how,” or material methods & means were concerned, in the Sacred Defense, we did not have the luxury of choosing from among many ways and means. We had inherited a nation that had been entirely dependent on the Global Arrogance headed by the US-West, LLC for its military equipment and training. Billions of dollars sent by Shah to purchase military crafts and the like were blocked by the same entity. After the Revolution, even nails and barbed wires had been put on the list of sanctions. Quite amusingly, it was the only war over which the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist US-West had come together and had formed a perfect and united alliance against Iran. So, the Iranians did the best they could with what they had. And they succeeded. Iran’s territorial integrity remained intact.
What stands out the most for us, what is most valuable for us, however, is that the Islamic Republic of Iran did not use just any means. Weapons of mass destruction were out of question. Chemical and biological weapons were out of question. Hitting cities, towns, and people was out of question. When the Iranian cities and towns were being bombarded and innocent civilians were being killed, some voices from within Iran were asking for exact retaliation. Top officials went to visit Imam Khomeini to ask permission to respond in kind. Imam Khomeini, however, outright refused and said,
“You must take great care not to ever get angry and, due to the fact that they are bombing your cities and killing your loved ones, become inclined to respond in kind. But this way, you are not taking revenge from him [Saddam]. You must take your revenge from Saddam and the Baath regime, and you are doing that. Be careful though that not even a bullet is shot toward their cities. These are cities that are oppressed just like our Behbahan [a city in Iran] is oppressed. Basra, too, is oppressed. So is Mandali. All of them are under oppression. We must protect the human aspect of this to the end. We must protect the human aspects until our martyrdom or death and don’t submit to this anger that since he is doing this, we, too, must hit one of their cities. No, it’s not like this. The principles are Islam’s principles. This is Islamic Republic. Here, Islam rules. So, be mindful of yourself, of those who have power, of the government that has power, of the Guard that has power, of the military that has power, of Basij that has power, those who have power must, more than others, protect the human aspects, the Islamic aspects. They must spend this power in the right place and never violate its boundaries.”[3]
We prostrate before God and thank Him for Imam Khomeini who helped protect and keep the soul of our nation unblemished. When he is talking about spending the power in the right place, he is in fact talking about the quintessential right method & means and the right proportion based on our beliefs. Thank God that this spirit manifested itself in the battlefields during the Sacred Defense.
Eight year of Iraq-Iran war also taught the Iranians to be self-sufficient in everything and taught the US-West, LLC a valuable lesson. It taught them that a war with Iran would not be a walk in the park. And the Iranians learned to become quite self-sufficient in bi**h-slapping the United States of America when the opportunities have presented themselves.
Source: Khabar Online News Agency. The arrest of US navy personnel near Farsi Island in Persian Gulf within the Iranian territorial water by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard on January 12, 2016. Photo was accessed online at: khabaronline.ir/x6fSc
Source: IRNA. Remains of the United States RQ-4A Global Hawk BAMS-D surveillance drone that had violated the Iranian air space over the Strait of Hormuz by IRGC on June 20, 2019.
Source: Image from Ayn al-Asad US airbase in Iraq after Operation Martyr Soleimani on Jan. 8, 2020 @ 1:20 am. Transcript and translation of a CBS interview by Bashgah Khabarnegaran Javan News Agency. Accessed online at: https://www.yjc.news/00WwDI
These are noteworthy events if we also note that in 2020, the military expenditure for the United States was 801 billion dollars (38% of the world total on military expenditure) and the Islamic Republic of Iran’s was 24.6 billion dollars (1.2% of World’s total)[4]. That is, the US spent 33 times more on all things military than Iran, yet, when slapped by Iran in Ayn al-Asad while the whole world was watching, the Commander in Chief of the United States of America’s most significant response was: “it didn’t hurt.” Well, that’s not exactly what we heard.
It perhaps is an opportune moment here to hear directly from Sardar Hajizadeh, the IRGC Commander who gave the order for Ayn al-Asad’s strike, about exactly how that event on January 8, 2020 proceeded. I have translated for you segments of an interview he gave on this topic last year. The full video in Persian could be accessed here.
Interviewer: We would like to re-visit that day when you heard he [Martyr Soleimani] had been martyred. What happened? Did you form a meeting? If you could, please talk about any of them that is not classified or is not a security issue.
Sardar Hajizadeh: There were discussions. At that point, we gave the highest probability for a direct fire exchange with [the United States of] America, hit some of their bases and they in turn to react to it. That high probability was expected among all groups, the political figures and the military figures. We considered all aspects. But it was impossible for us not to give a direct respond. Also, the honorable people of Iran must pay attention to this matter that [the US] America, after the World War II, after 75 years, during all these times, no nation had ever had any direct battle with them, or hit them. No one had done that. That is, no one had dared to do that.
After that operation, too, when I would meet with top military commanders from many countries, all of them would ask at the very beginning of the meeting, their first question of me would be this, ‘how did you possibly made this decision?!’
Sardar Hajizadeh: So, [US] Americans realized that Iran intends to do something and they began to issue threats.
Interviewer: The Americans?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Yes. It was the second day, the day after their terror act, Trump came and issued a direct threat. He said, ‘If Iran responds, we will hit 52 locations in Iran. So, it is under these circumstances that you are deciding to hit [US] America. And many people from many places [foreign officials & international organizations] were sending messages to us not to escalate, to cool down, or to do something later, and so on and so forth…
Interviewer: So, what happened next? They said they’ll hit 52 locations but the decision here did not change?
Sardar Hajizadeh: No, it did not. They would say quite solidly that they would absolutely hit 52 locations and we, too, made the solid decision to absolutely hit. Until the night before the operation, our decision was to hit Taji Camp. It is near Baghdad, near Kazmain. But the night before we changed our decision and decided to hit Ayn al-Asad.
Interviewer: Who had information that you were going to target Ayn al-Asad?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Very limited number of people had it. Just a few commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, for example, and the head of the Command Center, Major General Bagheri. Very limited number of people knew, we and only seven or eight other high commanders.
Interviewer: Did you inform Iraq? How long before the operation did you notify them?
Sardar Hajizadeh: See, there has been this ambiguity about this and they said something like…
Interviewer: …people say they [the US Americans] knew, they evacuated the location, they left….
Sardar Hajizadeh: Well, we will show you photographs and you will broadcast them. Almost in all US bases, they were on high alert and they did not know where exactly we were going to hit. But they were anxious. From Persian Gulf to Strait of Hormuz to Kuwait, from there to Iraq and to Jordan…everywhere they were giving high probability that we would respond. That day, after Hajj Qasem’s martyrdom, they distanced themselves about 500 kilometers from Makron shores. That is, they went outside of Hormuz Strait.
Interviewer: They were giving a high probability you hit, and they left.
Sardar Hajizadeh: Yes. So, all these talks that the Americans knew and all that, no, [the US] America did not know where we were going to hit. Decidedly they did not know.
[Videos and films were shown by Sardar Hajizadeh in the program that clearly showed the US forces had evacuated the Persian Gulf and had dispersed their planes to different locations in their various bases.]
Sardar Hajizadeh: Now you see the photographs of Al-Hodaid and A-Zahrra, when you look, before they martyred him [Martyr Soleimani], these fighter jets [pointing to photos] have their regular arrangements. The fighters are all lined up together. But after they martyred him [pointing to other photos], as they were worried about attacks from Iran, they spread them all over the taxiway, in different disparate locations. They spread it around. That means they adopted a full defensive posture. You see these navy ships here [pointing to Persian Gulf], these are from before their terror act. Now you see after the martyrdom, all of them are gathered up here. You see here is fully evacuated. This shows that they are worried they might be attacked. The same situation applies to their air bases.
Interviewer: When did we let the Iraqi’s know?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Half an hour before firing the missiles. Either through Quds Force or the Foreign Ministry, they informed the Iraqi Prime Minister that we intend to hit an airbase in Iraq.
Interviewer: Half an hour?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Half an hour. However, they did not know which base.
Interviewer: They did not even know which base?
Sardar Hajizadeh: No they didn’t. This half-an-hour notice, too, was only out of respect for the Iraqis since it was their land, they had decided to let them know half an hour before the strikes.
Interviewer: Had the number of missiles been determined, too?
Sardar Hajizadeh: We fired and hit them with 13 missiles.
[A video of the exact moment Sardar Hajizadeh is giving the go ahead for the strikes by phone is shown. I took a screenshot of the video [images below] at two separate moments. The first image is the moment Sardar Hajizadeh is giving the go ahead for the strike by phone and the second image is moments after that.]
The moment Sardear Hajizadeh is giving the order for the strikes on Ayn al-Asad: “Hit. Hit baba, Bismillah.”
Sardar Hajizadeh, having just ordered them by phone to fire the missiles, is explaining to those present in the command room: “You see we are firing one at a time [with pause] so that their people would have time to escape because we are not after mass killing. But that evil Trump committed such crime. Even at the time they were striking Haji’s vehicle with their missiles, the strikes on the two cars were done within a second from one another. He had not given them any opportunity [to get away].”
The fine point Sardar Hajizadeh is raising here is noteworthy because he is referring to a code in the rules of combat among the Iranian fighters and commanders. When striking a place where there are a lot of low-ranking soldiers, you fire in a way they would have an opportunity to run if you are able to provide them that opportunity, like Ayn al-Asad strikes. However, Trump had ordered striking Sardar Soleimani and Abu Mohandis Al-Mahdi and their companions while they were not even in a battlefield, or in a military base, or on high alert.
The interview continues…
Interviewer: Was Ayn al-Asad Operation complete success?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Yes. All missiles hit precisely where they were directed to hit. Precisely where they were meant to hit.
[Here, the interview has incorporated videos reports from Persian-language stations like BBC and the like about the strikes.]
Interviewer: One thing they say is this, ‘there was nothing at Ayn al-Asad when we hit it. What was the use of hitting Ayn al-Asad? The damage to [the US] Americans was not that significant.’ Could you expand on this a bit more?
Sardar Hajizadeh: You see, they could have killed Sardar Soleimani without admitting they did this. Why did they claim responsibility? Why? Because they wanted to say, ‘We have power. We hit and you cannot do anything.’ That was the whole story. And we RESPONDED, we HIT to say, ‘It is not like you can hit and run. If you hit, you will definitely be hit.’
[The interview is moved to a different location.]
Sardar Hajizadeh: You see, all of these have been destroyed. Here is the control center for UAVs. It’s destroyed.
Interviewer: Did they have any people who were killed?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Yes, they had people who were killed. The Iraqi people who were there they reported to us about the dead bodies they [the US Americans] were putting into bags. And they managed to kick out all of them [the Iraqis] within the first hours. Even when they were pulling out the dead bodies from underneath the rubbles. First they kicked out the Iraqis, then, they pulled the dead bodies out.
Interviewer: Themselves?
Sardar Hajizadeh: Yes, themselves.
[Toward the end of the interview, the interviewer asks, “Was this the retaliation/revenge?”]
Sardar Hajizadeh: This was the beginning of the revenge. I believe it was an important beginning and it demolished [the US] American’s grandiosity. But it is not yet finished.
Interviewer: Once we hit them, what happened next? What else were we ready for?
Sardar Hajizadeh: We were ready, in the event they responded, to start hitting the US bases. The beginning was Ayn al-Asad but the continuation was to be all bases in the region. That is, we had to hit all of them. We had prepared 400 missiles for the initial moments. We had prepared ourselves to escalate and continue the fight. But, well, the [US] Americans did not decide on continuing.
Interviewer: Did they even try to destroy any of our incoming missiles?
Sardar Hajizadeh: No. You see, these people have some capabilities. But we, too, know how to fight. We have learned a thing or two in these few years. We hit both their shield and themselves. All the bases they have in the region, you can do simultaneous strikes with 500 missiles, you can completely decommission them and hit them rather hard in a manner that would be hard for them to rehabilitate.
Sardar Hajizadeh: One day, I had a meeting with high commander of the Russian aerospace division, who had come to Iran. I showed him the videos of the Persian Gulf and was explaining to him how with drones we fly right overhead the US navy ships. He asked, “Don’t they hit? Don’t they see you? Aren’t you afraid?” I said [smiling], “General, test them!” He flew [the drone] over the US navy ship. I told him not to worry. You see, others are learning these moves. The head of Russian aerospace asked, “how come they don’t hit you?” I answered, “if they hit, we’ll hit back.”
Sardar Hajizadeh: At any rate, hitting Ayn al-Asad was not some small task. Some claim we coordinated things with them. If we were the sort to coordinate [chuckle] things with them, then, we wouldn’t have been having all these battles!
Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei received on the eve of Sacred Defense Week, a number of the commanders and veterans from the Sacred Defense along with the families of martyrs in the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah in Tehran.
Other Sacred Defense veterans who live in various parts of the country also joined this meeting via teleconferencing from centers in the various provinces.
Imam Khamenei said on Wednesday that the victory of the Islamic Revolution was not an impermanent political failure for the United States but a threat to the empire of the domineering system, stressing that “The Sacred Defense proved the fact that protecting the country and [achieving] deterrence can be achieved through resistance, not surrender.”
His Eminence underlined that the resistance raised the morale and self-confidence of the people and, at the same time, taught the enemy to reconsider its calculations and include the Iranian nation’s power and resistance.
“The military invasion against the country after the [Islamic] Revolution was not unexpected. It is true that Saddam launched the attack, but behind Saddam was global arrogance,” he said.
“The Sacred Defense is an exciting, eventful and fruitful juncture. The era of Sacred Defense is one of the events that have an effect on our yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said. “Therefore, the veterans [of the war] should be given attention and respect.”
According to the Imam Khamenei, the Iranian nation had a new message for the world during the era of the Islamic Revolution and the imperialist countries did not want anyone to hear that message.
“They wanted to smother the voice of the Iranian nation in the throat,” he said. “They wanted to show that if anyone rises against the US, they will be suppressed.”
Imam Khamenei also said that the enemies were angry because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which “was not in line with the policies of Western and Eastern powers.”
He recalled that all countries in that era were either pro-West or pro-East and no independent nation existed at the time.
“It was not at all tolerable for a country outside of this [bipolar] system to come and speak its mind. It was unbearable for them that a nation is not afraid of America,” the Leader of the Islamic Revolution went on to say.
Imam Khamenei also noted that the revolution brought about events in the world that “perhaps we were not aware of all of its dimensions at that time, but they knew what had happened.”
His Eminence further underlined that the great power of the Islamic Revolution, the leadership of the late Imam Khomeini, and the distinct characteristics of the Iranian nation turned the threat of war into an opportunity.
Another objective of the domineering system was to bring the Iranian nation to their knees, subvert the Islamic Republic, and change the fate of the Iranian nation, Imam Khamenei said, adding that their ultimate goal was to make the Iranian nation a lesson for other nations and destroy the resistance.
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Translated by Al-Ahed News Hezbollah holds a special place among national liberation movements, especially on a regional level. Its success is manifested through its outstanding military efficiency in confronting “Israel” to liberate territory and deter aggression. This success is also evident in the group’s soft and hard regional influences, and in its ability to politically adapt within the Lebanese system.
The triumphs and accomplishments have their own reasons and circumstances. These are both subjective and objective, to which the party adds metaphysical and spiritual factors (divine guidance) that are linked to its religious identity.
When talking about the success of this model throughout its history one must acknowledge the fact that it is not free of problems, weaknesses, and failures, and this is the case for every political actor from the greatest empires to the smallest political groups.
Hezbollah is a small organization fighting “Israel”, which is a regional entity and project with unlimited international support. Therefore, it needed material and financial assets, cadres, an incubating environment, a logistical structure, a dynamic and charismatic leadership, and a strategic geopolitical depth (national and supranational). How did Hezbollah achieve this?
The dimensions of this success and its historical circumstances are intertwined, but it is necessary to sort and disassemble them to get a clearer picture.
Also, focusing on the elements of success and uniqueness does not translate into ignoring the obstacles, challenges, and changes. Shedding light on these elements contributes to enhancing our understanding of their importance and their role in the party’s march, in a way that encourages interaction with them in terms of reform, correction, and care. Hence, their inclusion is not the result of complacency or vanity.
1- The founding generation gains experience: The first generation of Hezbollah gained experience and expertise within Lebanese and Palestinian political and military movements, during difficult times of civil war and confronting the “Israeli” enemy.
They experienced challenges, problems, and failures that reinforced their desire and need for changes and acquiring the necessary resources, skills, and networks of influential interpersonal relationships.
A number of cadres belonging to the first generation had plenty of experience in large parties such as the Amal movement, local Islamic movements, mosque groups, and a few of them were part of non-Islamic resistance forces (Fatah movement).
This generation experienced communist and nationalist ideas, argued with them, responded to them, and often competed with them.
This generation suffered the disappointments of the defeat of the Nasserist project, the kidnapping of Imam Musa al-Sadr, the assassination of Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in Iraq, the repeated “Israeli” aggressive operations, and the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organization from Jordan and then Lebanon.
All of these prompted the founders to try and think in a different way. For example, from a military point of view, their collective experience contributed to the planning and implementation of the most dangerous military and security operations during the 1980s, which established a solid foundation for the party’s saga.
2- Taking inspiration from the Islamic Revolution and integrating with it.
The victory of the revolution in Iran transformed the broader Islamic world. For the Shiites this was a historic opportunity to break out of the state of oppression.
The Lebanese Shiites were the first to network with the victorious revolution, especially since some of the cadres had built strong personal relations with Iranian cadres opposed to the Shah’s regime and provided them with assistance in Beirut, in addition to religious relations with Iranian figures due to contacts through the Hawzas in Najaf and Qom.
Thus, the benefits of the Islamic revolution reached Lebanon quickly. The most prominent of these was the arrival of the training groups sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps by order of Imam Khomeini to the Bekaa Valley through Syria following the “Israeli” invasion in 1982.
To carry on and grow, this resistance required organizational frameworks that gradually took shape until the structure of Hezbollah emerged.
The existence of this regional support for the resistance is indispensable in light of the imbalance of power. The Iranian regional political support and Iranian material resources (arms, training, and money) enabled Hezbollah throughout the decades to focus on the conflict with the “Israeli” enemy without needing to be constantly preoccupied with securing support or searching for compromises with regional powers in pursuit of protection.
The religious/ideological link between the party and the Wali al-Faqih [guardian Islamic jurist] organized the party’s relationship with Iran and facilitated an understanding between them. It allowed the latter to look at the party from several perspectives, namely the Islamic revolution, which is hostile to the American system of hegemony in the Islamic field (specifically the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine) and Iranian national security as well as preserving Shiism.
3- Solidifying the historical resistance framework of the Lebanese Shiites
Hezbollah engraved and reproduced the history of the Lebanese Shiites from the angle of their role in resisting the Ottomans, the French, and the Zionists.
Imam Khomeini’s fatwa for the delegation of the nine (they formed the nucleus of establishing Hezbollah) on the duty to resist the “Israeli” occupation with the available capabilities, no matter how modest, played a pivotal role in activating the resistance project as a religious duty first and foremost.
Thus, Hezbollah became a natural extension, compliment, and boost to the experiences of the Shiite revolutionaries at the beginning of the twentieth century and the positions of their great scholars such as Sayyed Abdul Hussein Sharaf al-Din and Imam Musa al-Sadr. All these are figures deeply enshrined in the conscience of the Shiite community, especially Imam al-Sadr (the founder of the Lebanese resistance regiments “Amal”) due to the temporal rapprochement between its experience and the birth of Hezbollah.
Therefore, loyalty to the resistance project is no longer loyalty to the party, but to the sect’s heroic role in defending the natural unity of Syria and in the face of the “Israeli” occupation since the beginning of its aggression against occupied Palestine.
4- Spreading power and confidence within an oppressed sect
The historical grievances and the structural marginalization of the Lebanese Shiites, especially after the defeat of their revolution in 1920 (and they had been defeated before that in the second half of the 18th century in Mount Lebanon), contributed to their thirst for changing their reality and the presence of a high revolutionary readiness that was being nourished by the restoration of the revolutionary practices of the Imams of Prophet Muhammad’s household (PBUH).
Hezbollah presented the resistance project under the title of confronting occupation and hegemony to which the sectarian system is affiliated. This would free the society from marginalization and oppression – the world in the party’s ideology is divided between the oppressed and the arrogant.
What helps the party perpetuate this narrative is its already strong presence among ordinary people born after the mid-1940s.
Hezbollah recalls this marginalization, which the society is actually experiencing firsthand – once directly as Shiites and once as part of the center’s marginalization of the parties in the north, the Bekaa, and the south. These areas are inhabited by an Islamic majority, and this made it easier for the party to communicate with various national groups under the rubric of confronting deprivation and marginalization.
Accordingly, Hezbollah’s success with resistance had multiple dimensions, serving as a remedy for dissipated pride dating back nearly two hundred years.
5- Filling the void in the shadow of a failed state
The civil war and the resulting settlement, which the party was not a part of, led to the emergence of a weak state incapable of carrying out many of its sovereign duties.
This allowed the party to carry the responsibility of the resistance and conduct social work for relief and development.
This state was not, in several stages, in agreement with the resistance project. It was even hostile towards it at times, including the era of Amin Gemayel and later Fouad Siniora’s destitute government.
However, it [Siniora’s government] was too weak to confront the resistance even with the help of external supporters.
This chronic state deficit that resulted in a lack of sovereignty reinforced the popular legitimacy of the resistance and forced the party to assume responsibilities that were not at the heart of its project, especially with the deterioration of the economic situation in the past two years.
6- Benefiting from the advantages of Lebanese Shiism, which tested nationalist, leftist, patriotic, and Islamic currents and produced a large number of intellectual and scholarly figures (Sheikh Muhammad Jawad Mughniyeh, Sayyed Mohsen al-Amin, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, and Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, etc.).
It was historically characterized by a moderate tendency resulting from the peculiarities of the highly diverse and complex Lebanese reality, and later due to the many waves of migration towards Africa and the West.
In recent decades, the Shiite community has also witnessed the phenomenon of displacement to urban centers (Beirut, the southern Matn coast, and Tyre) and integration into the contracting and trade sectors, which had repercussions on their social class and political awareness.
Hezbollah had to work and grow within this type of complex Shiism, and therefore, its relationship with the general Shiite environment is based on a mixture of loyalty to it and negotiation at the same time.
This requires the party to be distinguished by social flexibility and targeted communication for each circle of its incubating environments, each of which has its own cultural, class, and regional characteristics for the Shiites themselves.
The party gradually attracted elements and cadres from these circles, which was reflected in an internal organizational vitality capable of understanding the complexities of the Shiite scene, dealing with it, and understanding its various internal sensitivities.
7- Maneuvering within the complexities of the Lebanese system resulting from deep-rooted sectarianism, its exposure to external interference, and its highly centralized financial-business economic model, required Hezbollah to maintain a safe distance. The movement positioned itself on the system’s external edge and approached it only to the extent that was needed to protect the resistance from local players with foreign ties to the United States and its allies.
Therefore, this complexity imposed on Hezbollah to weave broad horizontal relations in the general political sphere (it had to develop its political thought and initiatives to build a network of cross-sectarian national alliances) and restricted vertical relations within the political system.
However, the deterioration of the political system and its poles, leading to the danger of the state’s disintegration, put the party in a historical dilemma; it must work through the system itself to ward off the danger of the state’s collapse (a concern that has grown in the party’s awareness after the devastation that befell Syria and Iraq and the accompanying disintegration of state structures) with apprehension that engaging in regime change or reform would lead to an externally backed civil war.
From the beginning, Hezbollah, in particular, had to be aware of the external interference in Lebanon, its channels, borders, and goals, as they represented an imminent threat to it.
Just like that, the party’s local political choices could have reinforced tension or appeasement with local and international forces.
It was not possible for the party to estimate the direction of the policies of foreign powers (such as America, Saudi Arabia, and France) in internal affairs and how to deal with them regardless of the international and regional situations.
Therefore, the party has developed complex decision-making mechanisms from its developing experience in Lebanese politics, which are mechanisms that it can employ in other areas related to the resistance and its regional role.
8- The rapid positioning within the Lebanese political arena of conflict is crowded with competitors. Hezbollah came into existence amid a heavy presence of political forces, armed and unarmed, most of which have external relations. It had to expand its influence within all this fierce competition.
In its infancy, the party underwent several field tests and intense political competition with major Lebanese forces rooted locally and forces with a regional reach.
Then the party became vulnerable to severe political attacks from the anti-resistance forces, especially after 2004. The burden of this competition increased after Hezbollah confronted the leadership of a national alliance with the so-called March 8 forces and the Free Patriotic Movement.
Hezbollah’s opponents receive extensive external support and are distinguished by their presence in various cultural, media, and political spheres in the form of parties, elites, platforms, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations, which are entities closely integrated with regional and international financial and political networks hostile to the resistance.
Some of these adversaries play security roles that double their threat. This reality produces constant pressures on the party, forcing it to dedicate part of its resources and capabilities to the local political sphere. It also makes it accumulate skills, frameworks, and criteria for managing political competition in a way that guarantees it the local and national stability necessary to avoid open internal conflicts that distract it from its main mission.
9- Intellectual rivalry in a complex and open public sphere resulting from the richness of the Lebanese political and intellectual life, contrary to what is the case in most Arab countries.
The party had to present its Islamic thesis in a highly competitive intellectual market where leftist, liberal, and nationalist currents have deep roots and prominent thinkers in the region.
This is what the party quickly realized in its infancy and prompted it to self-review the Islamic state and the Islamic revolution.
The party is constantly confronting political and cultural arguments that are highly critical of its political and cultural project (apart from a fierce information war) that prompted a number of its elites and institutions to engage in this “market” and root the party’s proposals on issues such as Wilayat al-Faqih, the homeland, the Lebanese system, multiple identities, the legitimacy of the resistance weapon, American hegemony, and social justice.
As a result, despite the party’s intense preoccupation with the issue of resistance and its requirements from the tactical cultural discourse, it finds itself obliged to engage in many discussions and develop its intellectual, research, and scientific institutions and cadres – a challenge still facing the party.
10- The ability to transform geography into its environment.
The geographical contact of the Shiite communities in Lebanon with occupied Palestine in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa made this environment targeted by “Israeli” aggression and under constant and imminent threat.
Thus, the party gained enormous influence and wide embrace within these communities through the success of its experiment in resistance, liberation, and deterrence.
This contact and the success of the party produced what is called the incubating environment, which is the most important element in the success of the resistance’s experiences.
The party has succeeded in completely assimilating into this environment, including its fighters, cadres, leadership, voters, and supporters.
This contact gave rise to a historical Shiite awareness of the Palestinian issue resulting from the historical personal and commercial ties between the Shiite and Palestinian communities and then Shiite engagement with Palestinian organizations and the residents of Palestinian camps after the 1948 Nakba.
On the other hand, this contact with “Israeli” aggression had a significant impact on Shiite urbanization and migration, as the occupied areas witnessed extensive Shiite migration to Africa and North America, and internally to coastal cities, specifically Tyre and Beirut.
This migration was a decisive element in the social and political rise of the Shiites, as well as giving Hezbollah popular incubators in vital areas and providing it with necessary human and material resources.
11- The participatory nature of the relationship with Iran:
The two sides dealt from the beginning on the basis that Iran’s role is to support the party’s decisions that it takes in accordance with the data of the Lebanese reality, especially since the Iranian state was preoccupied with major internal and external challenges.
Therefore, the Wali al-Faqih used to grant legitimacy to the act, provided that the party takes the necessary decisions. Later, Hezbollah was able, due to its successes and the role of its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, to become a partner in the Iranian regional decision-making process, especially in the files related to the resistance project.
This partnership is reinforced by the influence of the Revolutionary Guards within the Iranian national security establishment, and the broad respect for the party’s experience among the Iranian people is a lever for this partnership. The Iranians were keen from the beginning to play the role of an assistant to Hezbollah, which is why the decision was to send trainers instead of fighters to Lebanon after the “Israeli” invasion.
This independence is reinforced by the theory of Wilayat al-Faqih itself, which recognizes local and national specificities.
With the Wali al-Faqih having the authority to command in all administrative affairs, but according to wisdom, justice, and the ability to understand interests and conditions of time, which are among the obligatory attributes of the Wali al-Faqih, he realizes that every local and national society has deep peculiarities that its people tell about.
Therefore, the Wali often leaves the party to determine the interests after he adjusts their terms.
This partnership had a direct reflection on Hezbollah’s regional influence, as the Iranians realize that the party’s Arab identity, along with what it has accumulated in the Arab conscience, makes it, among other arenas and files, a major player in managing the resistance project.
12- Mastering the administration in connection with the experience of Iranian institutionalization.
Hezbollah has benefited from its deep ties with Iranian institutions, whether the Revolutionary Guards, the civil services, or even the hawza in Qom, to draw inspiration from the experience of building institutions and organizing administration, which is one of the historical characteristics of the Iranian experience.
A number of the institutions of the Islamic Revolution either initially opened branches in Lebanon and then were run by the party, or transferred their experience to the party, which copied it with a local flavor and peculiarities.
Iranian experts in management and human resources have transferred knowledge, skills, and administrative systems to party cadres that worked to build and develop active and efficient civil institutions in the fields of education, development, party organization, health, services, and local administration.
The party’s institutions usually benefit from Arab and Lebanese experts and academics from outside its environment to gain access to qualitative experiences and new knowledge.
The above-mentioned party institutions in the capital and the outskirts attracted thousands of young men and women graduates of universities who chose these majors or who were encouraged by the party to study in them to benefit from modern sciences in management and human resources.
This institutional momentum contributes to the efficiency of the party’s activities and its ability to meet its needs, to preserve and transfer experience, to development, to attract energies, and to adapt to transformations, especially since the “Israeli” enemy has repeatedly targeted these institutions.
13- Building strategic interests with Syria after years of mutual anxiety.
The relationship between the party and Syria was characterized by mistrust and suspicion at the beginning, with several field frictions between the two parties taking place, which reinforced the mutual distrust.
Damascus aspired to gain the regulating position of the Lebanese reality with international and regional recognition and to employ this in Syria’s internal stability, regional influence, and balance with the “Israeli” enemy.
Some Syrian government officials were apprehensive that the party’s agenda, identity, and relationship with Iran could disrupt their Lebanese project.
But with the war on Iraq, after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the failure of the Arab-“Israeli” settlement project, the end of the Iraqi-Iranian war, and Hezbollah’s steadfastness in the face of the “Israeli” enemy in the 1993 aggression, a new path was launched, the beginning of which was to prevent President Hafez al-Assad, at the initiative of the then commander of the Lebanese army, Emile Lahoud, using the army to clash with the resistance in 1993.
Since then, it can be said that a door for direct communication opened on the issue of resistance between the party and President al-Assad, regardless of the complexities of the so-called Syrian-Lebanese security system.
This relationship was strengthened during the “Israeli” aggression in 1996 when Syria played a key role in the birth of the April Understanding.
The relations between the two parties were strengthened after the American invasion of Iraq and Resolution 1559, as Syria realized its need for the party and its necessity regionally and in Lebanon.
Syria also became a vital strategic depth for the party with the expansion of the confrontation arena after 2011, which was proven by the party’s entry into the war in Syria in 2013.
The party succeeded in understanding Syria’s concerns in Lebanon and kept pace with its vital interests by not clashing with the post-Taif regime and revealed to it its weight in the conflict with the “Israeli” enemy. The strategic partnership that developed over time between Syria and Iran helped in this.
14- The awakening of the marginalized Arab Shiites.
With its rise, the party became the center of the Shiites’ eyes, hearts, and minds in the Arab world. They have experienced decades of exclusion and abuse, similar to the Zaydis in Yemen.
Thus, they found in the successes of the Shiite Hezbollah a possible entry point for Islamic and national recognition. This oppression of the Arab Shiites served as an amplifier for Hezbollah’s achievements and a motivator for being identified with it and drawing inspiration from it.
Thus, Hezbollah’s regional influence is primarily a product of its soft power, a power characterized by long-term results and acceptable costs. It is a fully legitimate influence.
The party supports the choice of these Shiites in peaceful struggle, encourages climates of dialogue with their partners and the governments of their countries, emphasizes Islamic unity, respects their national privacy, helps them in the media to raise their voice to demand rights, and urges them to political, media, and popular participation in support of the resistance project within the region.
15- Healing the Arab psychological defeat through victory over the “Israeli” enemy and support for the rising resistance project in Palestine.
A large part of Arab societies took pride in Hezbollah’s resistance, interacting with it and getting closer to it, as they found it a response to decades of disappointment and defeats.
Hezbollah has been keen to highlight its Arab identity in its political, cultural, and media discourse and in its artistic products (anasheed) and has strengthened its institutions concerned with communicating and engaging in dialogue with Arab elites, parties, and groups.
This Arab fascination with the party’s experience in fighting the “Israeli” enemy and in its leadership constituted a provocative factor for the Arab official regimes that emerged from the conflict with the enemy, as the party’s successes practically undermined the discourses of complacency and the legitimacy of its advocates.
This explains the insistence of a number of regional regimes on creating sectarian tensions that have had negative repercussions on the party’s relationship with part of its Arab incubators.
But the decline of the sectarian wave as the party continues to lead Arab resistance efforts against the “Israeli” entity can create conciliatory atmospheres with Arab incubators on the basis of understanding and dialogue, organizing differences, and neutralizing them from the resistance project.
16- Inspiration, representation, and transfer of experience
Hezbollah has limited material, human, and financial resources. Therefore, its building of partnerships and alliances at the regional level within the resistance project had to be based on its most prominent assets, namely its ability to inspire and transfer its experience and lessons learned to its peers within movements and forces that practice the act of resistance.
What made this possible was that the party’s victories revived the spirit of resistance in the Arab and Islamic spheres (for example, the comparison between Sayyed Nasrallah and President Abdel Nasser abounded) and thus stimulated the desire of many groups and elites to understand and benefit from the party’s experience.
The most prominent results of this appeared in occupied Palestine, especially in the second intifada.
Therefore, Hezbollah was interested in transferring its experience in resistance, administration, media, and organization to a large network of Arab and Islamic non-governmental political actors involved, militarily or politically, in confronting the American hegemony system.
The transfer of experience naturally includes the transfer of values, ideas, patterns of behavior and practical culture, as well as establishing networks of links and relations with the cadres of these movements and parties.
Thus, over time, additional groups joined the equations of force and deterrence for the resistance project. The Zionists started talking about multiple circles of the resistance axis that extend to Iraq and Yemen.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 