What do Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela, and Thomas Sankara have in common? The answer is simple: All three were intent on meeting with the leaders of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei.
All three knew what it meant to liberate a people from colonialism; all three knew imperialism well; and all three recognized that the Iranian Revolution was not a simple palace coup, not a “color revolution,” not a revolt by colonels, but a revolution on the scale of the French Revolution.
They knew that it was a turning point for peoples colonized and dominated by imperial powers. As with any great revolution, those who have been beaten, defeated and driven out will do everything they can to get back what they have lost. That is what is happening today.
“Today Iran, tomorrow Palestine,” said Arafat, the first foreign political leader to visit Tehran in February 1979 to meet with Khomeini. Until then, Iran had excellent relations with Israel, notably supplying 60% of its oil needs. Revolutionary Iran broke off relations with Israel, and Khomeini promised Arafat that Iran would turn its attention to the problem of Israel as soon as they had consolidated power.
“My Leader,” Nelson Mandela said to Ali Khamenei when he met him in Tehran in 1992. For Mandela, the Iranian Revolution was “an irreproachable example of a victorious struggle against oppression.”
Under the Shah, Iran maintained close economic, political and diplomatic relations with the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the aftermath of the revolution, Iran severed these ties, while members of the Shah’s family were welcomed there with open arms.
Ali Khamenei, a Shia cleric, met Thomas Sankara, a Marxist raised a Christian, in 1986 in Lusaka. For Khamenei, the Burkinabe revolutionary was “my brother.” Both were assassinated because they refused to bow to the dictates of imperial powers.
A Colonial Reconquest
Let there be no mistake about it! The war the United States and Israel are waging against Iran aims to restore a world order that we thought was defeated, the world order against which Mandela, Arafat, Sankara, Lumumba, and so many others fought. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, proclaimed this at the Munich Security Conference, hailing the lost era of colonies and empires. Donald Trump trumpeted it on February 28 when he launched this war.
“This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces.” This broad threat is clear for all peoples to hear.
Some people like to say that the current war is Israel’s war and that Israel forced Trump into it. You only have to read Trump’s speech to see that, in fact, this is the war of an empire seeking revenge against a country that refuses to comply. Israel, which is only mentioned once, is merely its leading power projection platform.
“A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted Death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries. Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days. In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.”
It comes as no surprise that Trump would refer to the seizure of the U.S. Embassy by students on November 4, 1979, to justify the war. In doing so, he invites us to revisit it.
“A Den of Spies”
Shortly after the embassy was seized, President Jimmy Carter asked Pope John Paul II to mediate for the release of the embassy personnel held. The pope immediately offered his help in a message to Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini responded with a text with a title that could describe Iran’s reaction today.
“WE FEAR NEITHER MILITARY ACTION NOR ECONOMIC SANCTIONS”
The text is still relevant today, especially in response to Western media commentators who recommend Ben Affleck’s (and the CIA’s) film Argo.
“The 35 million people of Iran, as well as the millions of deprived peoples of the world who have been under the yoke of oppression and the pressure of colonialism, particularly on the part of the United States, expressed most recently by pressure applied by Carter, have all been waiting for a kind word from the Pope all these years. They expected the Pope to at least give a stern warning to the U.S. and other powers that have been exploiting the deprived nations of the world.
“For fifty years, the noblest of our youth have been killed and undergone inhuman and savage torture by agents of the shah and the U.S. During all these years, the Pope neither supported our oppressed people nor made an effort to mediate.”
Khomeini then discussed the U.S. Embassy:
“Embassies are not permitted to spy and it is our legal right to prevent them from spying. Experts have shown that the U.S. embassy was a center of espionage and conspiracy….
“The best evidence is that in the course of the three hours while the youth were struggling to penetrate the den of spies, the Embassy personnel were busy destroying the documentary evidence, leaving only a pile of powder behind. If the building were truly an Embassy, and if these papers were truly Embassy documents, there would have been no need to destroy them so hastily.”
What did the students find after piecing together the shredded documents? Here is one example (see reproduction below).
General Robert Huyser, President Carter’s special military envoy, sent a “top secret” telegram to General Alexander Haig, commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, in January 1979, shortly before Khomeini returned to Iran.
The Americans were planning a coup d’état if the government of Shapour Bakhtiar, set up at the last minute by the Shah, did not comply with their instructions. Also they were considering assassination.
“My guidance to the military is we must go to a straight military take over….Also I think there are several elements outside the Gov. that want a complete civil war here. One good way to trigger that is to have Khomeini return and be assassinated.” [See scan below.]
This is the murderous American logic at work 47 years ago. They failed to assassinate Khomeini, but succeeded in assassinating his successor.
Looking back on 47 years of conflict with Iran, Trump forgot to mention the failure of another attempt to overthrow the Iranian Revolution: the deadly war waged from 1980 to 1988 by their ally of convenience, Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Any countries tempted to do the dirty work for the United States in the current war should remember the fate that befell Saddam Hussein.
Iran survived that war, which saw Iraq resort to the widespread use of chemical weapons with technological assistance from the United States, despite its supposed neutrality. As Henry Kissinger said: “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.”
Far-Fetched Pretexts for War
The United States and Israel claim to have started this war:
- to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat;
- to liberate Iranian women and the Iranian people; and
- to eliminate a regime of religious fanatics.
How can anyone believe the first pretext, after the U.S. administration lied shamelessly about “weapons of mass destruction” to justify its war against Iraq in 2003?
How can anyone believe anything after the Trump administration blatantly lied about the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January 2026? They lied in full view of everyone. Now we are to believe their claims that they are telling the truth?
What’s more, Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa in the 1990s that still applies against the acquisition, development and use of nuclear weapons. That fatwa is internationally recognized and has been quoted by President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry, among others.
Trump and his political and media parrots are also trying to scare us by raising the specter of what might happen if Iran had nuclear weapons.
What if we reversed the proverb, “One in the hand is better than two in the bush” and to make it, “Two in the hand is better than one in the bush”?
That means challenging the only power that has already dropped an atomic bomb and its mad-dog side-kick that has had nuclear weapons for a long time, even though nobody talks about it.
Liberation of women and the Iranian people: What about the facts!
Bombs have never liberated a people and never will! That goes without saying.
As for the status of women since the 1979 revolution, if we manage to see through Western propaganda, the picture we see is very different.
In terms of literacy, progress since the dark days before 1979 has surpassed that of most countries in the world. According to the Indian newspaper TimesNowNews:
“Iran has achieved one of the greatest social revolutions in the history of the country in the progress it has made in the literacy rate of women, from 35.5% in 1976 to 85.1% in 2023, according to the World Bank and UNESCO statistics.”
“With the improvement in the access of women to education, many have been able to pursue higher education in professional fields. The statistics of the country’s education sector show that the number of female students in the country’s universities has already exceeded 50%.”
When it comes to women’s health, all indicators show unprecedented progress since the 1979 revolution.
One of the reasons for this progress, according to Iranian journalist Maryam Qarehgozlou, is the presence of women in the medical professions:
“Approximately 40 percent of medical specialists are women, and around 27 percent of subspecialists are female—a notable development considering that prior to 1979, there were effectively no female subspecialists in the country.…
“Approximately 10,000 women currently serve as faculty members in medical universities, accounting for about 34 percent of all academic staff.”
As a result, she points out, “Life expectancy among Iranian women increased by approximately 29 percent. Adult female mortality declined by 78 percent.”
These advances for women in the field of health are also reflected in the university graduation rates for women, particularly in engineering and science.
Religious fanatics?
After announcing in his war speech that he would lay waste to Iran with the most powerful armed forces in the world, Donald Trump called on God to help him:
“And it is a noble mission. We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran. We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm’s way. And we trust that with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail. We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.”
He ends his speech with another religious incantation.
“May God bless the brave men and women of America’s armed forces. May God bless the United States of America. May God bless you all.”
Is it possible that the truly religious fanatics are not the ones we think they are? And are in the U.S.?
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About the Author
Robin Philpot is a graduate of the university of Toronto and founder of Baraka Books in Montreal.
He is author of A People’s History of Quebec, with Jacques Lacoursière (Baraka Books, 2009); and Rwanda and the New Scramble For Africa: From Tragedy to Useful Imperial Fiction (Baraka Books, 2013), among other works.
Robin can be reached at philpotrobin@gmail.com.
