It seems that the Iranian regime is delighted that the people of the world are distracted by the World Cup. Mass protests have shaken the regime, which had not been expecting them. It is all because Iran is a theocracy that terrorizes its people in the name of religion. They flog women in the streets and torture them to death for not wearing a headscarf. Al Mesbar Studies and Research Center have published an insightful book on the subject entitled: Iran and Foreign Policy: Betrayal of the Inside.
The center explains that Iran and Foreign Policy: Betrayal of the Inside aims to help us better understand the regional strategies that the “Islamic Republic” has pursued through its various political, military, economic and sectarian proxies, which it has been accumulating since the Mullahs came to power after the Shah was overthrown. The book explains that in its sphere of influence, Iran has been fighting on several fronts in pursuit of its so-called national interests.
The regime took advantage of some Shiite groups in several Arab states, who fight for it under the pretext that they “suffer injustice.” These transnational local and regional proxy militias have been used to undermine stability in the countries they are based in. Tehran’s pursuit of “regional power” status in this unstable part of the world has cost it dearly, not only internationally but also domestically. Indeed, it has expanded the opposition bloc within the country, which decries the wealth and energy wasted on growing the country’s regional influence. The “protest movement” that emerged towards the end of 2017 is the clearest proof that economic conditions are dire, especially once we account for the country’s high unemployment and poverty rates, which were the primary grievances of the protesters.
I will go over some of the most prominent insights in the book. Diaa Nasser, an Iranian researcher who studies the country, sought to look into the changes that could bring down the regime from the inside, as well as the reasons for these changes, their outcomes, and their ramifications. He unpacks the theoretical underpinnings of Iran’s regional interventions, their tactics, and their costs. He also discusses reactions within Iran and what sparked the protests, answering the question: “Who are the protesters?”
He believes that Iran’s foreign policy, in the Middle East and beyond, has cost the people heavily. In a world with modern communication technology and international news networks, which make information accessible to all and prevent any state from monopolizing control over what their people know, the Iranian people asked themselves: “Why should we spend our wealth on the government’s foreign adventures? Why should these misguided policies devalue our currency, impoverish our people, and expand the wealth gap between the country’s different social classes?”
He also points to the county’s rabid corruption, in which officials in the government, banks, and the funds owned by the state or the IRGC, are implicated, as well as the monopoly of the IRGC’s development and construction company Khatam al-Anbiya, as reasons for the frustration of the Iranian people with the ruling clique. This clique has led Iran’s youths to their deaths in Syria, and they are obliterating the financial capital of the Iranian people, impoverishing them and pushing the whole world to pity them. It violates their most human rights and freedoms, using religion and doctrine to further its political end, alienating youths, who do not trust its religious ideology.
To conclude, the Iranian regime is getting a taste of its own medicine after having given it to the people of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. True, bringing down the regime is not possible, but it is vulnerable to shake-ups that change it fundamentally.
