Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal today, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that could potentially transform the Middle East. (CARLOS BARRIA/AFP/Getty Images)
Maryam Rajavi
Against the backdrop of daily reports of atrocities at the hands of terror groups in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, the world now has word of a nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and the Iranian regime, which–even in the most optimistic reading–not only fails to block Tehran’s pathways to a nuclear bomb, but will provide it with tens of billions of dollars to add to its war chest.
Some may view the concessions to Tehran as an attempt by the Obama administration to secure Iran’s cooperation to counter and defeat the insidious danger of Islamic fundamentalism. This would misread the regime’s history and stated intentions. Tehran’s nuclear program is explicitly tied to its revolutionary, imperialist impulse. As former President and current head of the Expediency Council Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani once boasted, if the regime acquires nuclear weapons, who could prevent the export of the “revolution”?
The agreement comes as the increasingly fragile regime is reeling from a multitude of crises. Under such circumstances, the P5+1 could have easily compelled the regime to abandon its nuclear projects had it adopted a decisive policy. In reality, the international community has lost an exceptional opportunity to stop the regime from acquiring the bomb.
Regime in Tehran has acted as the driving force of the modern Islamic caliphate
Similarly, when the United States fights terrorism it opts for costly and ultimately counterproductive efforts to pick at dandelions. A drone strike here, token training and small arms shipments there. Lest the garden of civilization–from the Fertile Crescent to the Nile River Valley–be overrun, we must eliminate this ominous phenomenon at its source. To do so we must gain a better grasp of its roots: Tehran. Indeed, the nuclear deal will legitimize and empower the most potent source of radical Islamic fundamentalism in the world.
It is true that both Shia and Sunni extremists, although disparate in tactics and sects, seek to impose an Islamic caliphate–a state based on repressive, regressive and false interpretations of Islam. But the modern vision of an Islamic caliphate in fact emerged four decades ago, in 1979, when Khomeini’s religious dictatorship–based on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or absolute rule of the clergy–came to power in Iran. Since then, the regime in Tehran has acted as the driving force and epicenter of this menacing threat both in the region and worldwide.
The ultimate, stated goal of this brand of fundamentalist extremism, as codified in the Iranian regime’s Constitution, is to establish a caliphate and impose Sharia law by force. It recognizes no sovereign borders in its quest for establishing an Islamic Empire and is primarily characterized by the subjugation of women, complete intolerance for ethnic or religious minorities, and predilections for brutality and violence. Sound familiar? This repressive, expansionist agenda, first institutionalized in Iran, is likewise the primary objective of fellow Islamic extremists including ISIS.
The mullahs will not be part of the solution to Islamic fundamentalism
Tehran has continually sought to export its reactionary ideology abroad in order to destabilize other regional powers and acquire or develop nuclear weapons as a guarantee of its own survival. According to the Constitution, the mandate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is to protect and extend Iran’s “Islamic revolution,” and the IRGC in turn formed the Quds Force, a special unit that has played a central role in perpetrating terrorism around the world. The Quds Force has played a particularly destructive function in Iraq and Syria over the past several years, sowing the sectarian violence that facilitated the vicious backlash of ISIS terrorists.
There is little nuance in the upper echelons of the regime. So-called “moderates” in Tehran, such as President Hassan Rouhani, share the views of other factions regarding the regime’s goals, including the totalitarian rule of the Supreme Leader and policies pertaining to terrorism and fundamentalism. These figureheads are not a force for change, but rather partners promoting the velayat-e faqih regime, which in turn stands as a major inspiration, model and active funder and backer of terrorist groups and cells all over the world. The mullahs will not be part of the solution to Islamic fundamentalism and extremism–they are at the very heart of the problem.
The Iranian people yearn for a democratic, tolerant and pluralist state
Islamic fundamentalism nevertheless can and must be defeated. But it must be torn out at its root: Tehran. This includes expelling the Quds Force and defanging the Shiite militias and other Iranian proxies in Iraq while enabling the genuine participation of Sunnis in governance. The U.S. should empower Sunni tribes by arming and backing them to provide security for their own communities. This is the only way to defeat ISIS. We must drain the swamp of their grievances and their new recruits.
In Syria, Iran’s patronage of President Bashar al-Assad must cease, which entails providing assistance to the moderate opposition’s efforts to overthrow Assad’s tyrannical rule and to establish democracy in that country.
These measures will be significantly diminished, however, if the regime in Tehran is able to preserve or expand its nuclear programs. All pathways toward the attainment of nuclear weapons by this regime must be blocked, something which the nuclear agreement does not do.
In the end, so long as the mullahs remain in power in Iran, Islamic fundamentalism will persist, mutate and spread. Regime change in Iran–through the courage and resolve of the Iranian people and the organized opposition–yanks at the root of the problem. As evidenced in the popular uprisings of 2009, the Iranian people yearn for a democratic, tolerant and pluralist state to grow in place of the velayat-e faqih system that chokes them.
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