Enemy’s Plans after the Nuclear Deal

* This piece was originally published in Jahan News. The website, affiliated with Principlist Tehran MP Alireza Zakani. Mohammad-Sadegh Koushki, author of this piece, is a well-known theoretician of the Principlist camp. He now serves as a lecturer in Tehran University.

Koushki’s piece clearly represents the suspicion of a major portion of Principlists towards the nuclear agreement with the Western powers. They view the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and potential normalization of ties with Western powers, as just the next phase of the West’s plan to rein Iran and turn it into a compliant country. ‘Revolutionary spirit’ is Koushki’s panacea against such conspiracies.

In an interview with Fareed Zakaria, former British MI6 Chief John Sawers claimed that during the ten- to fifteen-year period set for implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran’s revolutionary nature will dilute. A few days earlier, an American official had stressed in an interview with Al-Monitor that the Middle East needs a ten-year plan, including a plan to pressurize Iran, and that the nuclear deal can pave the way for such pressure. These confessions clearly demonstrate that the JCPOA is not the ultimate goal of Imperialism, but a major tool to achieve a more critical goal, that is, diminishing Iran’s revolutionary spirit. Several points come to mind regarding such comments:

1. A number of American and British figures have reiterated that the JCPOA will weaken the revolutionary spirit of Iran, and in their belief, change Iran’s path. Such assumptions are encouraged not by technicalities of the likely deal, but by larger mechanisms that lead to (non-)approval of the deal. In fact, many in the West, particularly the Americans, are hoping -and they have stated this explicitly- that approval of the JCPOA by Iran preludes US influence in Iran and is the onset of a trajectory that ends in Iran’s surrender to Western hegemony. Eventually, the revolutionary Iranian nation arrives at the conclusion that struggle against the US is in vein, and they should compromise with Imperialism. Thus, the West has tied its hopes to the post-JCPOA era, when the path is smoothed for infiltrating the Iranian psyche, and they can impose their will upon the Islamic Republic in all domains. The US is trying to reinforce its status as an unrivalled superpower against Iran, and force upon the Islamic Iran the fake grandeur of Imperialism.
2. Inside Iran, there are elements who are trying to theorize and complement the strategy of the enemy. For the removal of the shadow of sanctions and military strike, they heavily rely on the JCPOA. They emphasize the JCPOA as an achievement of the “moderates”, so as to marginalize the revolutionary youth and label them as “radical”. The Supreme Leader has warned everyone against playing this game. Everyone knows that the West has failed to achieve its desired goals through the various plots that it designed, and thus, has now turned to a strategy of negotiation and dialogue to solve its regional and global problems. While the enemy has openly stated –and has no intent to conceal- that the ultimate goal of the JCPOA is to dilute the revolutionary spirit of the Iranian nation, in the meantime, it intensifies threats and even claims that implementation of the nuclear agreement paves the way for bombing Iran.
3. As mentioned earlier, the West, led by the US, expects a decline in the revolutionary spirit of the Iranian nation as a natural outcome of the JCPOA. An expected result of the deal is neutralization of threats against the West. To reach this goal, they are trying to establish their channels of infiltration through tempting, unconventional proposals [to Iran]. One of the goals pursued in the post-deal era in order to weaken the revolutionary spirit of Iran is to undercut Iran’s regional influence at the first step, and to eliminate the ‘axis of resistance’ next. There is no doubt that the grand strategy of reinforcing the ‘axis of resistance’ should be realized through withstanding the influence and regional policies of the West. The ‘resistance front’ in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon is facing two enemies at the moment: the takfiri terrorists, and the Zionist regime. Both these fronts are supported by the West. Supporting the state terrorism of the Zionist regime is an eternal, unalterable commitment of the West. If they have failed to effectuate their conspiracies through these two elements, it’s because of the revolutionary spirit of the Iranian nation. This spirit has forced the West to design further complicated methods, and present another option code-named JCPOA.
4. If we take the imperialist tendency of the US as a given, and agree that the JCPOA is only one of the many steps it has designed to force Iran to surrender in all domains through pressure and intimidation, then it becomes clear that in their belief in establishment of ties with the US as the ultimate solution to all problems, some [Iranian politicians] are committing a strategic mistake. Common sense concludes that the revolutionary spirit and deterrence power of the Islamic Republic has guaranteed its security, jeopardized Western interests, and brought them to the table of negotiations. It is this key feature of the Islamic Republic that has prompted them to attack the foundation of the revolution through the JCPOA. Friend and foe have confessed: what prevented the realization of threats or imposition of another war against our country was the Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Khamenei’s revolutionary spirit, vigilance against the enemy, and wise leadership.

Wherever there is a problem, it is rooted in abandoning this revolutionary spirit. Current developments around the world, besides threats, intimidations and insults against the Iranian nation reminds us of the reality that indifference towards religious and national goals, principals and causes and forgetting the jihadi, revolutionary spirit will be disastrous for the country. It is the revolutionary spirit that brings security for the country and buttresses resistance against the enemies. The final word belongs to the Supreme Leader: “US officials do not hide their enmity; one smiles and the other ratifies acts against Iran. US officials seek negotiation with Iran; negotiation is means of infiltration and imposition of their wills… The Iranian nation did expel this Great Satan; we barred their direct access and now we must not allow their indirect access and infiltration.”