Forty-seven years ago, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was forced to flee his country following a wave of riots and demonstrations. The West's loyal friend was cowardly abandoned. Europe, and Giscard d'Estaing's France in particular, had betrayed the strategic alliance they had forged with their closest ally in the Middle East.
The French president granted political asylum in Neauphle-le-Château to the spiritual father of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. At the time, I was Kol Israel's permanent correspondent in Paris. I had visited the site several times and seen Khomeini praying with his followers on French soil. I was able to meet his close associates and even participate in discussions with them. I discovered a veritable Islamic propaganda network that was spreading with the unconditional support of the terrorist international and the backing of the PLO.
Intelligence services provided damning daily reports on the presence of potential terrorists in France. They had even suggested expelling Khomeini to Algeria, but at the last minute Giscard d'Estaing decided otherwise. This irresponsible and fatal decision has destabilized the entire Middle East to this day.
On February 1, 1979, Khomeini arrived in Tehran as a great liberator on an Air France plane specially arranged for him. Arafat was the first visitor received by the leader of the revolution. The welcome was enthusiastic, and the crowd went wild. The PLO leader proudly declared that the Palestinian revolution would soon triumph and that, thanks to Khomeini, its fighters would march victoriously through the streets of Jerusalem, "Al-Quds."
US President Jimmy Carter also chose to abandon the Shah under the pretext that he "violated human rights," without guaranteeing a stable, pro-Western regime in his place and ignoring the rise of Shiite Islamists. Carter lacked the courage to nip the emergence of a religious revolution in the bud. Ten months later, on November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran. All attempts to free the 52 hostages were doomed to failure, including a military operation. This rescue mission ended in a tragic failure in the Iranian desert, resulting in the deaths of eight American soldiers. It was only after 444 days of captivity, on January 20, 1981, that all the hostages were released—the very day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in the White House.
Thirty-five years later, President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, embraces the Ayatollahs and signs an agreement on the ongoing nuclear program. He refuses to heed the alarming warnings of the Israelis, and even cancels a targeted CIA operation against Hezbollah, the drug kingpin in Lebanon, precisely to avoid a confrontation with Iran and the imposition of new sanctions.
Europe followed Obama's lead for commercial reasons by lifting sanctions as well. Since then, European officials and experts on the Iranian issue have been repeating the same message ad nauseam: "Iran is not a rogue state like North Korea; it respects the agreements signed with the West and does not violate the nuclear agreement." (sic)
How else can one say it when multinational interests are at stake? How can one not plead the Iranian cause to justify the trade agreements signed?
Even today, we persist in the same path, turning a blind eye to violations, repression, torture, terror, and massacres. Worse still, we no longer condemn Iran for its anti-Semitic rhetoric and its threats to destroy and wipe the Jewish state off the map.
Why is it that when Trump and Netanyahu encourage protesters in the streets of Tehran, they are accused of interference and labeled provocateurs? But when Obama and the Europeans encouraged the so-called Arab spring, the fall of Ben Ali and Mubarak, this interference was deemed legitimate. Finally, why are the Ayatollahs, those who represent obscurantism and terror, always spared from any criticism?
For four years, the Biden-Harris tandem preferred to follow the principles of Obama's policy… They wanted to revive the dialogue with Tehran and open a new page after Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement signed in Vienna in 2015.
For 47 years, Western nations engaged in dialogue with Iran on equal terms, fully aware that the ayatollahs cheat, lie, and utterly disregard the treaties they signed. They never seriously considered or planned the overthrow of the Islamist regime.
Today, President Trump is serious about changing this bloodthirsty regime, and he's making that clear. Is he beginning to understand that you can no longer negotiate with a rogue, terrorist, and despicable state? Instead, you sanction it by every means possible, you pillory it until the day it collapses like a house of cards.
How can Europe, the champion of human rights, remain so indifferent and powerless in the face of the carnage of thousands of Iranians? How can Europeans believe in the good intentions of Khamenei, this 87-year-old man who speaks to us in the name of a malevolent and vengeful god? This dictator, a master of diplomatic manipulation and political cunning, is now backed into a corner with no way out. He repeatedly promised to engage in nuclear negotiations to avert a regional war in the Middle East… In reality, it was a smokescreen… And each time, Europeans foolishly fall into his macabre trap.
Donald Trump must not repeat the same mistakes and agree to indirect talks with the ayatollahs under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and especially Qatar. Incredibly, the powerful United States is offering the tiny emirate unlimited power: to become the primary mediator in resolving international conflicts.
Donald Trump has grandiose and sometimes extravagant plans to resolve conflicts across continents, but in reality he always struggles to implement them.
After each decision, his wavering plunges the country into uncertainty and sooner or later becomes counterproductive. In the eyes of the ayatollahs, this signals a certain weakness on the part of America, while in Europe and even in Israel, there is hesitation in granting credibility to his pronouncements. Even more serious, the Iranians who are bravely fighting against the Islamist regime feel betrayed.
The leader of the world's most powerful nation must think carefully before making a speech or a crucial decision, and no longer react in such a simplistic and emotional manner. Contemporary history teaches us that decisions made lightly and impulsively, without prior planning for the future, have always had catastrophic consequences for world peace.
From 1979 to the present day, the historical errors and failures of Western policy in the Iranian issue are eloquent, scandalous, revolting.
Western powers have failed to achieve lasting political settlements through military operations or by ousting heads of state. They have failed in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, not to mention their defeats in Afghanistan and the Far East.
They largely ignored the fact that the Islamist revolution in Iran is purely religious in both time and space. It is noteworthy that, in the absence of a structured opposition with a providential leader at the helm and on the ground, it is extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible, to overthrow an autocratic and religious regime through a spectacular military operation, because divine power is deeply ingrained in people's minds. It dominates reaction and paralyzes critical thinking.
Therefore, to achieve concrete results, it is essential that Western countries sever diplomatic relations with Tehran and close their embassies. Complete isolation of this rogue state from the international stage is necessary to hasten the fall of the Islamist regime.
In this context, Trump's credibility will be severely tested since the fight against the Islamist regime is complex and long-term.
Finally, if the American president wishes to go down in the glorious pages of history, as the one who succeeded in resolving the most complicated conflicts on the planet, he will have to be uncompromising, consistent and above all credible.
