Iran and Israel are not as opposed to each other as everyone believes

Thierry Meyssan
October 8th, 2024 

There are many among us who believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran is first and foremost an enemy of Israel. Those who believe this do not understand the thinking of Imam Khomeini and are ignorant of the history of relations between these two countries.

Imam Ruhollah Khomeini was an anti-imperialist in a country that lived under the yoke of the United Kingdom and then under the domination of the United States. A fact that is never mentioned in the West is that during the First World War Iran suffered a famine in which at least 10% of the Iranian population died, making Iran one of the primary victims of that conflict [1]. That catastrophe has hardly been studied in the West and it is generally not mentioned in the great books on the First World War. In any case, the Iranians are convinced that this event was a genocide, the result of the massive confiscation of crops ordered to feed the British army during its fight against the Ottomans and the Russians.

In 1953, Britain joined forces with the United States to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized Iranian oil at the expense of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and to impose Nazi General Fazlollah Zahedi as the new head of government [2].

As head of the Iranian government, General Fazlollah Zahedi created a political police force that distinguished itself by its sadism, the SAVAK [3]. In creating the SAVAK, Nazi Fazlollah Zahedi was efficiently assisted by a group of Israeli revisionist Zionists sent to Iran by Yitzhak Shamir, who was then responsible for a branch of the Israeli Mossad.

This is why Imam Khomeini's writings always stress the need to fight the United States and the United Kingdom – describing them as "the great Satan and the little Satan" – while presenting Israel only as a product of the Anglo-Saxons, not as an independent power.

However, the close ties between the Persian Empire and Israel did not end with the Iranian Islamic revolution. Today, a joint company (50% Israeli and 50% Iranian) continues to operate the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline, built in 1968, i.e. under the Shah's regime. Any publication about the owners of the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline is punishable in Israel by 15 years in prison [4].

With this information in hand, it is important to recall the importance of the Iran-Contra scandal in the history of the Islamic Republic.

The Iran-Contra scandal (also called Irangate) broke out when it became known that an operation by the United States secret services had been conceived by SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Klaus Barbie, who was also the organising force behind the dictatorship of Bolivian General Hugo Banzer in Bolivia, as well as the now infamous Medellin drug cartel. The aim of this operation was to supply arms to pro-American mercenaries fighting against the Sandinista revolution that had come to power in Nicaragua. However, SS Klaus Barbie was exposed as a war criminal wanted since the end of World War II and was eventually arrested and extradited to France. Faced with this “inconvenience”, the secret operation was taken over by the American colonel Oliver North, who headed a secret team in the US National Security Council.

From his position on the US National Security Council, Colonel Oliver North conceived a more complex operation: to obtain the release of American civilians taken hostage during the Lebanese civil war in exchange for the shipment of weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran, then engaged in a war against Iraq. Israel would supply the weapons from the enormous volume of arms it has always received from the United States. These weapons would be sent to Iran... but a certain quantity of them would actually be sent to the Contras who were attacking Nicaragua. This project obtained the support of the assistant to the Secretary of State. That assistant was the revisionist Zionist Elliott Abrams.

Their initial contact in Iran was the then deputy Hassan Rohani, whom the American agents knew from the time of the Shah's regime. Rohani in turn established contact with the then president of the Iranian parliament, Hashemi Rafsandjani. The operation acquired such proportions that Rafsandjani became the richest man in Iran.

Despite all the official investigations, the most important elements of this dark affair remain a secret. What is clear, however, is that Hassan Rouhani (later President of Iran from 2013 to 2021) and the late Hashemi Rafsandjani (President of Iran from 1989 to 1997) collaborated with the American team of Oliver North and Elliott Abrams.

In 2006-2007, Elliott Abrams co-led with Liz Cheney (daughter of US Vice President Dick Cheney) the group in charge of policy and operations against Syria, a cross-cutting structure of the administration of President George Bush Jr. This group, which even had a top-secret budget, oversaw aid to all Iranian opposition and to anyone fighting against the “Ayatollah regime”, anywhere in the world.

Colonel Oliver North is no longer on the political scene, but Elliot Abrams organised Benjamin Netanyahu's last election campaign, set up his alliance with the extremist Kahanists parties, the Jewish Force of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Jewish Home of Bezalel Smotrich, thus reforming the current of Israeli revisionist Zionists, disciples of the fascist Vladimir "Zeev" Jabotinsky [5]. These pushed for the modification of the provisions that served as a constitution for the Hebrew State, in what the Israeli opposition and many observers call a "coup d'état"

The Iranians do not want to destroy their adversaries. In Iran, they have become accustomed, when two groups come into conflict, to create a commission charged with reconciling them. Generally the commission does not achieve this goal. Its members end up themselves entering into conflict with another institution and then another commission is created to resolve the new conflict and so on. This has led to a very complex organisational structure, where the adoption of even the smallest decision requires a dozen signatures, which almost no one can gather. The system is self-blocking.

In 1933-1994, the Revolutionary Guards sent militants to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina under NATO orders. These Iranian fighters fought on the side of President Alija Izetbegovic, so there was no opposition between the Anglo-Saxons and the Islamic Republic of President Hajemi Rafsandjani. Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden's "Arab Legion" were part of this operation.

In 2005, a major press campaign was initiated against Iran's new president, the anti-imperialist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The British agency Reuters fabricated a statement in which President Ahmadinejad allegedly said that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map [6]. The fake quote was used to provoke condemnation in the UN Security Council before the hoax was exposed and Reuters published a denial. In fact, President Ahmadinejad had said that the State of Israel, like the Soviet Union, was destined to disappear over time – he never said that the Israelis should be driven into the sea. Despite the denial published by Reuters, the fake quote continues to appear in numerous books as if it had actually been spoken.

 It was also at this time that the Anglo-Saxons began a campaign to make people believe that Iran was trying to obtain aan atomic bomb to use against Israel. After having invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, the Anglo-Saxons hoped to justify an attack on Iran in this way [7]. In reality, it was the Shah's regime that tried to equip itself with nuclear weapons - with the support of the West - a project that the Islamic Republic solemnly abandoned in 1988 on the initiative of Imam Khomeini. It is important to note that since that date, 1988, Iran has never resumed nuclear research for military purposes.

In 2009, the United States mounted a "colour revolution" against the re-election of the nationalist Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Washington then clearly relied on former president Hashemi Rafsanjani. In 2003, by secretly negotiating with envoys of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the United States finally managed to remove Ahmadinejad's group from the equation and put Hassan Rouhani in power.

In 2011, the head of counterintelligence appointed to lead a special unit in charge of combating Mossad infiltration was... an Israeli agent. This person, who remained in office until 2021 and now lives in Israel, surrounded himself with a team of about twenty people, who also fled Iran to settle in Israel. They were the organisers of the assassinations of scientists linked to the Iranian nuclear program and the theft of the Iranian archives that Netanyahu proudly displayed at the time.

In this context, it is not surprising that an Iranian source revealed to Israel the appropriate place and time to assassinate the main leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah. Especially when the Supreme Leader is secretly negotiating with the Biden administration, with the idea of ​​reaching an agreement before November 5, the day of the American presidential election. This means that the pro-Americans are now more powerful than ever in Tehran.

Iran's main problem is not the opposition between "conservatives" and "reformers", as the Western press claims. The "conservative" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in favour of everyone being free to grow a beard or not, and, in the case of women, to wear the Islamic veil or not, while the "reformer" Mir Hossein Mussaavi, continually supported by the West, always spoke out against the freedom of homosexuals.

Iran's fundamental problem is the paralysis of its institutions. There is, of course, an anti-Jewish current, just as there was a Nazi party, but the Iranian Jewish community is represented in the parliament of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian political life is better explained in sociological terms: the bourgeoisie of Tehran and Isfahan derives its wealth from international trade and therefore aspires to the abolition of borders. But the people of the rural regions remember the famine that decimated their families under the impassive gaze of the Anglo-Saxons.

Key factors that should not be forgotten:

• In Iran, there is a small minority that is pro-Western and pro-Israeli. As president of the Islamic Republic (1989-1997), Hashemi Rafsandjani sent Iranian fighters to fight in Bosnia-Herzegovina under NATO orders.
• In Iran, it is not impossible to maintain anti-Israeli rhetoric and continue to do business with the Israeli government. Today, the Islamic Republic and the Hebrew State continue to jointly exploit the Eilat-Ashkelon oil pipeline, which is essential to Israel's economy.
• Pro-Israelis play important roles in the Islamic Republic. It would not be surprising if members of Iranian official circles betrayed the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah. 

Notes

[1] The Great Famine and Genocide in Iran: 1917-1919, Mohammad Gholi Majd, University Press of América, 2013.

[2] “CIA declassifies more of ‘Zendebad, Shah!’ – internal study of 1953 Iran coup”, National Security Archives, 12 February, 2018.

[3] “SAVAK: A Feared and Pervasive Force”, Richard T. Sale, The Washington Post, 9 de mayo de 1977; Debacle: The American Failure in Iran, Michael Ledeen, Vintage, 1982.

[4] «Israel e Irán explotan juntos el oleoducto Eilat-Ascalón», Red Voltaire, 2 January, 2018.

[5] Zeev Jabotinsky was a fascist in every sense of the word. He was an ally of Benito Mussolini and installed his Jewish militia, the Betar, on the outskirts of Rome, precisely under Mussolini's protection. Until his death in New York in August 1940, Jabotinsky was always a supporter of the Axis powers against the Allies.

[6] «Reuters participa en una campaña de propaganda contra Irán», Red Voltaire, 20 de November, 2005.

[7] «¿Quién le teme al programa nuclear civil de Irán?», Thierry Meyssan, Red Voltaire, 9 July, 2010.

 

Source: https://diariodevallarta.com/iran-e-israel-por-thierry-meyssan/