George Orwell once wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever," describing totalitarianism. The Shah, at the behest of the USA, was not only turning Iran into a dark stranglehold of authoritarian and oppressive rule, hunting down and obliterating pro-democratic forces, but he was also unintentionally driving the people into the fold of theocratic revolutionaries who were emerging as an alternative force. By the time his SAVAK realized the perennial threat to the kingdom from the clergy, it was too late to avert the escalating agitation against the Pahlavi rule, led by students and young Ayatollahs of Qom and its subordinate seminaries clustered around Grand Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini. The USA, as usual, was slumbering while the fall of its most important ally in the Middle East was imminent.
The Exile and Return of Khomeini
The Grand Ayatollah was exiled to Iraq. However, the Iraqi rulers, under pressure from the USA, showed reluctance to host the rebellious Ayatollah. He was compelled to move to France. The USA, by supporting the wobbling regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi and pressuring Iraq to repatriate Ruhullah Khomeini to Tehran, earned the enmity of an entire young generation involved in the extensive struggle for the establishment of an Islamic revolutionary state. The Iranian revolutionaries feared that the USA would repeat its mischievous role to undermine their revolution, similar to the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime through a military coup in 1953. During the chaotic conditions in Tehran and elsewhere, revolutionary activists targeted both pro-monarchy civilians and military forces.
The Hostage Crisis and Its Aftermath
This anger against the USA prompted the revolutionaries to storm the US Embassy and capture American diplomats. The American leadership mishandled this serious issue. They had to abandon their military attempt to free their diplomats. This abortive military attempt fueled the anger of the revolutionaries and cost President Jimmy Carter his second term. He had to return to his peanut farms. The revolutionaries, mostly young seminarians and young seminary teachers, steered the ship of theocracy for almost half a century, holding important positions. They also witnessed the hostile US policy towards their revolutionary regime, which encouraged, funded, and armed Iraq to invade their country. This war lasted for over eight years, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Iranian deaths. It was a miracle for Iranians that their Islamic revolution survived this long war, which further intensified their antagonism against the USA and sowed seeds of hostility towards Arab countries in the region that supported Iraq.
Internal Power Struggles
The first elected President of revolutionary Iran, Abol Hassan Bani Sadr, a confidante of Ruhullah Khomeini, could not survive the power tussle within the clergy circle, and his administration collapsed unceremoniously in 1981. He fled to France, where he stayed until his death. Two Grand Ayatollahs of the caliber of Ruhullah Khomeini, Kazim Shariat Madari, Principal of the Central Qom Seminary, and Hussain Ali Muntazeri, who were widely perceived as successors of Khomeini, also fell from grace with the revolutionary leader. Shariat Madari was removed from the Qom Seminary and placed under house arrest, while Hussain Ali Muntazeri was sidelined in 1988.
The Rise of Ali Khamenei
Ali Hossaini Khamenei, though an acolyte of Ruhullah Khomeini, did not have the academic credentials to match the qualifications approved for the leadership of the Supreme Council. Ayatollah Hashmi Rafsanjani was more qualified to become the successor of Ruhullah Khomeini as the Supreme Leader. However, Ali Khamenei consolidated his political position by aligning with powerful groups. After the collapse of the Bani Sadr administration, Ali Khamenei was elected as President of Iran in 1981. Despite Ruhullah Khomeini's support, Hashmi Rafsanjani could not muster the nomination. Khamenei also won a second term. In 1989, after the death of Ruhullah Khomeini, he was elected as the Supreme Leader. He never looked back.
Khamenei's Legacy
The Islamic revolutionary state of Iran we know today is the monumental legacy of the late Ali Hossaini Khamenei. He oversaw the consolidation of political and constitutional institutions; founded the foreign and security policy of the revolutionary state; invented a statecraft designed to increase the country's influence in the region and beyond through overseas proxies; regularized and strengthened the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC); helped them gain supremacy among the armed forces, with substantive leverage over political and diplomatic institutions; and approved a funding system for proxies through the IRGC. Their footprints are everywhere from Gaza to Lebanon, Yemen, other Gulf states, and the Strait of Hormuz.
Historically, all revolutionary leaders remain concerned about the consolidation of their revolution and keep their nation in a confrontationist state to gain time to dismantle any potential challenge from revisionist forces. The Iranian revolutionary leaders did not have such fears, as the anti-monarchy and anti-theocracy forces had already been obliterated by the kingdom of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in connivance with the USA. However, they were always apprehensive of US hostility. They knew that the friendship of the USA was dangerous, but its animosity was always fatal. Therefore, they never slackened in their efforts to face any eventual challenge from the USA. Despite sanctions and political and diplomatic isolation, the clergy leaders focused on their defenses, designed for asymmetrical war.
US and Israeli Policies
US leaders committed blunders during all these years. Israel was on a march to eliminate every chance of a parallel Palestinian state as provided in UN resolutions. With the failure of the Rabat Plan, presented by then Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in 2002, to gain the support of President George W. Bush, Israel boldly started annexing occupied Arab territories. US leaders just looked the other way. However, Israel always felt a perceived security threat from Iran. With the connivance of US leaders, Israel was harboring a grand plan of Greater Israel. All Arab countries, one by one, were recognizing Israel and coming under its security umbrella over the past many years. The Abraham Accords speeded up this process. Iran was perceived as the main obstruction to the Israeli plan. Therefore, its destruction was compulsively obligatory according to Jewish gospels. (To be concluded.)
Ambassador M. Alam Brohi, a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and two-term Ambassador, is the author of five books.
