The “Great Satan” or the “Angel of Mercy”

(On the relations between the Islamic Republic

and the United States)

In the last 22 years, the relationship between the two governments of the Islamic Republic and the United States has always been one of the most intense issues in the political arena of both countries. One day the Islamic Republic occupies the American embassy and takes its personnel hostage, and another day an American war vessel shoots down an Iranian passenger aircraft from the skies of the Persian Gulf. In short, during these past 22 years, not one day has passed without the public opinions of the two countries being, in one way or another, agitated against the so-called “satanic” aims of the other. If, on the one hand, the Islamic Republic has named the U.S. as “the Great Satan” and for each and every occasion has burnt its flag, the United States too, on the other hand, has boasted about its economic sanction against Iran and has allocated millions of dollars to CIA activities against the Iranian regime. In recent years, however, we witness a shift in U.S propaganda toward the Islamic Republic, especially following the 1997 presidential “election” which resulted in the presidency of Mohammed Khatami. Since then, the propaganda apparatus of the U.S. government has been attempting to sell a different portrait of the Islamic regime to the American public and deem the Iranian government as the “Iranian people’s choice” which has evidently, as a result of a somewhat democratic election, come to power through the votes of the majority of the Iranian people.

Until yesterday, the Islamic Republic government was portrayed as a “rogue” state and as the advocator and director of “Islamic Fundamentalism”, which wiped out its opposition through “state terrorism” whereas nowadays, the U.S. government proclaims the Islamic Republic’s staged election -which even some of the internal factions of the regime itself construe to be undemocratic due to the role of “the Guardian Council” in filtering the candidates- as a sign of the democratisation process in Iran. Furthermore, by alleging the development of “the rule of law” and that of “civil society”, the U.S. government, in unison with the ringleaders of the Islamic Republic, speaks of the need to break down the “walls of distrust” between the two governments. It is precisely towards this very aim that both governments emphasise the necessity for extending a “cultural campaign” between the two countries and that the U.S. government is preparing the ground by lifting the “banning” of some commercial items for the “normalisation” of relations.

The U.S. government’s campaign, highlighting Khatami’s deceitful slogans related to “freedom” and “the rule of law” as well as the faked elections organised in the last few years in Iran, is aiming to masquerade the excessive dictatorship that has been ruling Iran and prepare the conditions for advancing its imperialist policies all the more easily while misleading American public opinion.

Notwithstanding these false claims and propaganda, however, Iran is still under the domination of an imperialist dictatorship, which justifies its rule under the banner of religion. Under the rule of this dictatorship, the people of Iran by no means have the opportunity to express their free will and any attempt to articulate the will of the people is repressed through the most brutal methods. Under the ruling dictatorship of Iran, the dishonouring of people’s opinions is so much so that the leader of the country titled “the supreme clergy”, virtually perceives himself accountable before none other than God, nor does he perceive his legitimacy from the votes of people. Therefore, despite the deceitful propaganda of both Iranian and American governments, under the domination of “the Absolute Rule of the Supreme Clergy”, there is neither any sign of freedom of thought and expression nor any trace of freedom of press and assembly; neither do religious minorities have freedom nor do ethnic minorities have the right to self-determination. The ruling regime in Iran has officially declared any trade organisation independent from the government as unlawful and has even deprived workers the right to strike. Iranian women, half of the country’s population, are oppressed in various forms and do not even have the right to choose their own clothing and in the case of disobeying the mandatory “Islamic coverage” they are faced with flogging and in other cases face being savagely stoned to death. Within these conditions, indeed, how can one believe the propaganda fallacies of both the Islamic Republic and its imperialist masters; a regime that has been condemned numerous times by the United Nations for the savage violation of human rights and whose cruelties are published by “Amnesty International” each year with more evidence.

In a situation where the Islamic Republic’s prisons are filled with dissenters and pro-freedom activists who have risen up against the dictatorship, and in a situation where the State press officially admits that thousands of university students have been brutalised and detained due to student protests and that each and every protest movement of the oppressed masses are viciously crushed, then speaking of democracy in Iran and the development of democratisation in this country has, therefore, no other meaning but spitting on the truth.

The fact of the matter is that the propaganda waged by the Iranian and the American governments regarding their relations have always been nothing but lies, both yesterday when they described one another as irreconcilable enemies and today while they are trying to unveil their covert relationship under the pretext of “dialogue between civilisations”. The history of their relations proves precisely the opposite of their propaganda.

A look at the process of formation of the Islamic Republic demonstrates as to how, with the help of Carter’s government and subsequent to the tampering of the “Guadaloop Conference”, this regime was brought to power replacing the Shah in order to contain the Iranian people’s revolution. The circumstances resulted from the Iranian people’s revolution of 1979 impregnating Iran’s atmosphere with anti-imperialist anti-American government sentiments and slogans on the one hand, and the necessity for wrapping a green belt around the region against the control and access of the Soviets, on the other, necessitated the Islamic Republic to wear an anti-imperialist and anti-U.S. veil. A look at the deeds of this regime, in Iran and throughout the region, alone elucidates both politically and economically the whys and wherefores of resorting to the above mentioned policies and their efficiency towards furthering imperialist interests. Remember the Islamic Republic’s stands which benefited the oil cartels in the market and then compare those stands with this very regime’s inmost co-operation with the U.S. in arming the Afghan’s Mojaheds in Afghanistan and also with its role in organising and giving arms to Islamic groups in Palestine and Lebanon. And above all, remember the role of this regime in the imperialist war between Iran and Iraq and how, for the benefit and interest of world imperialism, it directed Iran to a ruinous war with Iraq siphoning billions of dollars into the hands of imperialist cartels and corporations while casting death and desolation upon the lives of the people of Iran and the region. The profits gained in this war by the imperialists and the role played by the Islamic Republic in implementing such a strategy is so evident that even the former Defence Minister of England, a while ago in the course of internal tensions within the British government, admitted that they had provided the grounds for its continuance due to the profits generated for imperialist conglomerates. Now, contrast this confession with Khomeni’s slogan: “war, war until victory” in order to better understand its real meaning. It was in the course of the very same war when Macfarlin’s trip to Iran and the Watergate scandal were exposed; a very lucid case that revealed the depth of a veiled relationship between the United States and Iran and illustrated that the Islamic Republic and the U.S., despite their deceitful propaganda, had all along enjoyed the best and foremost disguised relations with one another and had been, in this covert way, advancing their interests. These examples prove that during all these years, not only have the Islamic Republic and the American government not been enemies but, on the contrary, they have been hand in hand putting forth a plan necessitated by the interests tied to the domination of imperialism over Iran. Notwithstanding all the quarrels of the two against each other, the U.S. has not, even for a moment, withheld its support from this regime, thus having been not “the Great Satan” but indeed an “Angel of Mercy” to the Islamic Republic. Just as the Islamic Republic, not as a “rogue” state but rather as an imperialist-dependant regime, has always functioned in implementing imperialist policies and, in doing so, has not hesitated from committing any crimes.

In the last 20 years, this strategy has preserved the interests and gains of imperialism and was upheld precisely for this very reason. With the changing circumstances, however, there arose a need for policy modification. It has been for this reason, indeed, that we witness the advocator and director of “Islamic fundamentalism” which was portrayed, following the collapse of the Soviets, as a world threat, now, under the pretext of “dialogues between civilisations”, as a democratic government and thus shaping public opinion. The truth is that the Islamic Republic has always been and still is but an anti-people dictatorship safeguarding the interests of imperialism. It is this realty that determines the task of the revolutionary forces, especially in the United States, and demonstrates the fact that they should with full force expose the deceitful propaganda waged by both the Islamic Republic and the U.S. government and not allow American imperialism, once again and this time under the veil of “dialogues between civilisations”, “civil society” and the necessity for strengthening the “moderate” faction etc. to promote its anti-people policies.

Down with the imperialist-dependent regime of the Islamic Republic!

With confidence in the victory of our path

The Iranian People’s Fadaee Guerrillas

August 7, 2000