TRIBUNE. As long as its source persists, war and destruction in the Middle East will persist

The fire that has been consuming the Middle East for almost a year was lit by the religious regime in Iran, and the mullahs have continually fanned the flames.

Coming from the Middle Ages, the regime of the mullahs was imposed in the 21st century by an accident of history. Unable to respond to the needs of society, this fundamentalist regime has, from its beginnings, used brutal repression against its own people. This is a war against freedom, against popular sovereignty and against the right to vote. In 45 years, this regime has not known a moment without war, without terrorism, without crisis or hostage-taking in the region. The religious dictator has always needed these elements to mask his internal war against the Iranian people.

Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, recently acknowledged that the eight-year war against Iraq, with a cost of trillions of dollars and millions of dead and wounded, had served to mask the regime’s internal war and ensure its survival. In December 2016, he said that “if the ‘seditionists’ had not been arrested in Syria, they would have had to be arrested in Tehran, Khorasan and Isfahan.” In May 2017, he added that “without the intervention of its commanders in Syria, the regime would have been forced to fight in its own streets and cities.”

Hassan Rouhani, president from 2012 to 2020, also emphasized in January 2016 that “without the resistance of Iranian commanders in Iraq and Syria, the country would not have been able to safely negotiate the nuclear deal. Ebrahim Raïssi, the former Iranian president, affirmed in April 2017 that “thanks to the actions of the “defenders of the sanctuaries”, the battles are taking place far from Tehran rather than in the streets of the capital”.

The slogan “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” was used by the Iranian regime to rally the region’s backward forces under a religious veneer, turning them into fuel for its war and terrorism machine.

This regime’s terrorists orchestrated the attack on the American Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing dozens of American and French soldiers, which was seen as a victory by Tehran, further strengthening their war and their terrorist strategy. Gradually, their unbridled terrorism established itself as a “dominant regional force”. However, neither this terrorism nor the hostage takings perpetrated by Iran have seen appropriate and firm reactions to stop them. The 2003 war against Iraq facilitated the Iranian regime’s occupation of that country, killing thousands of American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis, ultimately taking control of the country.

Through extortion through war, terrorism and hostage-taking, the mullahs have been able to expand their repression beyond their borders, using their propaganda machine to demonize their opponents. They succeeded in having the People’s Mojahedin included on European and American terrorist lists, thus allowing the regime to continue its repression and warmongering without opposition. It was only through the intervention of independent courts and committed lawyers that the Iranian resistance could be removed from these lists.

“We let the guilty go free, but we punish the innocent. »

As part of its extortion tactics, the regime even orchestrated a police raid on the resistance office in Paris, threatening to extradite its leader. It was only through the mobilization of the Iranian diaspora and freedom supporters across Europe that the resistance managed to reverse the situation and move forward. The uprisings of 2017, 2019 and especially 2022 shook the foundations of the regime. The latter no longer has additional means to repress his people.

Thus, Khamenei once again resorted to an old tactic: stirring up regional conflicts to distract attention from internal problems. It provided full support – military, logistical and financial – to Hamas to fuel the war in the region, without foreseeing that this war could turn against it.

For more than 45 years, while the guilty have gone free and the innocent have been punished, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Gaza war and millions more across the region and in Iran.

As long as the heart of terrorism and war beats in Tehran, the region will continue to suffer its consequences. The Gaza conflict is just one branch of a poisonous tree whose roots are planted in Tehran.