Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | May 13, 2025
*47 years of US negotiation with the Ayatollah regime suggest that US policy makers have been impressed with the, supposedly, pragmatism of Iranian negotiators. However, while the US considers agreements with the Ayatollah regime and its proxies (e.g., the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah) a step toward reconciliation and peaceful coexistence, the Ayatollah regime considers negotiation as a step toward the realization of its ideology – a global domination of all walks of life by Shia Islam, headed by Shia clerics.
*While US policy makers tend to take history, ideology and religion lightly, assuming that Money Talks, the Ayatollah regime is determined that Ideology Walks. Furthermore, as documented by its 47-year-old track record of rogue exportation of the Islamic Shia Revolution, the Ayatollah regime’s ideology transcends financial and diplomatic accords and benefits.
*The ideology-driven rogue conduct of the Ayatollah regime has been vindicated by the surge of Iran from a secondary/tertiary power in 1979 to a global power in 2025, with strategic footprint from the Persian Gulf to Latin America and the US homeland.
*Iran’s Ayatollah regime has been fully inspired by the Islamic Shia ideology, which was expounded by the leader of the 1979 Islamic Shia Revolution, and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini is considered by the Ayatollah regime and Shia Muslims as The Sublime leader and the role model of governance in accordance with the Twelver Shia, which is embraced by a vast majority of Shia Muslims (e.g., a 60% majority in Iraq, 35% minority in Lebanon and a 12% minority in Saudi Arabia, mostly in the oil region). The Twelver Shia holds that the “infallible” 12th Imam (Muhammad al-Mahdi), who disappeared in 939 AD, will return in a violent apocalyptic context, severe suffering by Shia Muslims, stained in “infidel’s” blood, as a savior to establish global justice, dominated by Shia Islam, which is, ostensibly, divinely ordained as the sole legitimate religion.
*Khomeini’s aggressive legacy includes the Twelver concept of the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (Velayat-e Faqih), which stipulates that all aspects of life must be governed by Shia clerics until the reappearance of the Mahdi. The Khomeini legacy also dictates that the attempts to bring the “infidel” West to submission provide a tailwind to the reappearance of the Hidden Imam al-Mahdi. Also, Khomeini was influenced by the founder and the leading ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, in addition to the annually commemorated 680 AD Battle of Karbala (the origin of the Sunni-Shia rift and Shia vengeance and martyrdom), the Twelfth Imam, and the 1501 AD recognition of Shia Islam as the official religion of Iran. While martyrdom has always been celebrated by Islam, with martyrs promised a place in heaven (Quran 3: 169-171 – “Never think of those martyred in the cause of Allah as dead; they are alive with their Lord, well provided for….), the Khomeini legacy has promoted deliberate-martyrdom (Istishhad), heralding “the great martyr Imam Husayn ibn Ali,” who was killed in Karbala.
*Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei has fully integrated the Mahdist ideology into Iran’s domestic and external conduct. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which coordinates Iran’s cooperation with its terror proxies throughout the globe, incorporates Mahdist ideology into its training programs, preparing the ground for the Mahdi’s return, and confronting The Great American Satan and its Middle East Vanguard, Israel.
*Thus, while the Ayatollah regime has underscored skilful negotiation and peaceful talk, its anti-US walk – domestically and internationally – has been driven by a 1,400-year-old apocalyptic ideology, which has been embedded in Iran’s 1979 Constitution, school curriculum, mosque sermons and official media, transforming Iran into the chief global epicenter of wars, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced weaponry.
The bottom line
Underestimating the intensity of the apocalyptic zeal of the Ayatollah regime, and sacrificing the volcanic, bleeding and frustrating ideology-driven Ayatollah apocalyptic reality on the altar of a pragmatic, peaceful and convenient business-driven alternate reality, may yield a short term geo-strategic accommodation, but would trigger a long term wave of wars and terrorism, paving the road to the first ever apocalyptic nuclear power.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.