FORMER PRESIDENT OF IRAN’S VIEW OF TODAY’S AMERICA AND IRAN

… Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was the first President of Iran 

Mr. Bani-Sadr’s views on America and Iran should be considered.

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was impeached by the Iranian Parliament as he was alleged to be against the Clerics that were in charge of the country.  He has always said that he was not against clerics and he has said the then Ayatollah Khomeini instigated his impeachment.  He has lived for decades in exile near Paris. He spoke with the WorldPost editor-in-chief, Nathan Gardels, right after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the US was withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Agreement for curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons development. 

When asked what he thought was behind President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, he answered with the following:

“Barack Obama’s government made the nuclear agreement in order to balance the alliance of Israel and Saudi Arabia with Iran’s presence in the region and therefore to prevent that alliance from dominating the Middle East.  Trump has done the opposite: He withdrew from the agreement to make it possible for Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States to undo that balance.”

Mr. Gardels then asked if he thought that this new policy would further isolate Iran, or would it isolate the United States?

Bani-Sadr stated: “The Europeans, including the European Union, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, along with Russia and China, signed the nuclear deal, and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the leaders of France, Germany and the U.K. have made firm statements that they will continue to support the deal no matter what the United States does. The continent is coming to the conclusion that the United States, under Trump’s presidency, is becoming a “rogue state” and is incapable of leading the ‘free world.’ On this issue, it [the US] is now allied only with Israel and Saudi Arabia.  On the Paris climate pact Trump already withdrew from it, and the United States is totally alone.  Regarding the Iranian regime, it all depends on the power struggle within the regime. If President Hassan Rouhani can stay in power and remain in the agreement with the other signatories, isolation will not be the country’s lot. However, if the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders use this opportunity provided by Trump to seek total control of the state and government, then the Iranian regime will also become isolated.”

Bani-Sadr still closely follows what is going on in American politics as he is aware of the Trump administration’s key players and their position about Iran and issues such as  regime change in Iran, possible future sanctions or even possible military intervention.

Per Bani-Sadr: “John Bolton, Trump’s national security advisor, is a well-known and public supporter of regime change in Iran. The irony is that new sanctions and the threat of war will only help the Iranian regime to solidify itself. Being able to leverage a constant state of crisis provoked by the United States is what enables the regime to continue today. So, paradoxically, Trump’s policy will make the regime stronger, not weaker. It especially emboldens the hardliners who argued the United States couldn’t be trusted in this kind of deal, the mirror image of the Trump argument about Iran.

Logically, if Trump is truly aiming at regime change, the best way to achieve it is to remove all sanctions. This would deprive the regime of the enemy that it needs in order to survive. It would also provide the Iranian people with the breathing space they need to continue the struggle for their independence, freedom and democracy.

However, if the United States were to attempt or support military intervention to change the regime in Iran, it would face a disaster many times worse than that experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone, irrespective of whether they are reformers or hardliners or apolitical, will rise up against a foreign invader.”

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr has long been an opponent of the theocratic regime in Tehran since being driven into exile.  But he does not agree with President Trump or some Europeans, such as President Emmanuel Macron of France, who say Iran is promoting war and turmoil across the Middle East.  And he has an interesting theory that bears serious consideration.

Per Bani-Sadr: “It is a fact that the Iranian regime uses terror as a method in the wars in which it is engaged. However, it is also a fact that using terror to eliminate opponents is not a monopoly of this regime. The Israeli government, to name one example, also has a long history of eliminating its enemies through acts of assassination or other acts of terror.

Yes, it is true that I have long been an ardent critic of the dictatorial regime in Iran, which has evolved into a military-financial mafia. However, the truth should always be told. The fact is that the United States and its allies started, or further inflamed, all these wars across the Middle East. The United States alone started the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With France and others, they toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and opened a war there. Along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, the United States armed jihadists in Syria. In Yemen, the United States and its allies were involved long before Iran.”

Mr. Bani-Sadr has described what is probably the view of many of those in the middle-east and should be taken into consideration when there are future decisions about how to deal with Iran and other middle-eastern nations.  Many people from the US and other nations have come to the conclusion that the US should never have gotten involved as we did in the debacle of invading Iraq.  In addition, the US chose to ignore the old saying that “Afghanistan is the graveyard of Empires”, because that is where empires go to fight and die.   That is where the grandson of Genghis Khan was killed, and that was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.

Today, the on-going conflict between the US and Afghanistan has become the longest ever war of the United States, and today there is no end in sight. 

Perhaps the comment of the former president of Iran should be given closer consideration by the free world’s leaders.

Copyright G.Ater and WorldPost  2018

(Please note that the WorldPost, is a partnership of the Berggruen Institute and The Washington Post.)