The Islamist revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini brought down Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, in early 1979. Khomeini had accused him of being an American lackey. Khomeini hated the West, especially America, and labeled the United States as the “Great Satan.”
His takeover of Iran, following 14 years in exile, was swift and complete. He purged all manifestations of Americanism and Western culture in Iran. And while he may not have given the direct order to take over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, his unrestrained hatred surely served as its inspiration.
The old adage that a “leopard cannot change its spots” is true of the current leadership of the Islamic Republic. Its religious, Khomeinist ideology compels it to be an eternal enemy of the United States of America.
By surrendering to this murderous and despicable regime, U.S. President Donald Trump has betrayed Israel—a loyal ally and partner—and abandoned the Iranian people who struggled so hard to break free of the current regime. It has a common thread: On the advice of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump, in his second term, also abandoned America’s Kurdish allies in Syria.
Trump said he engaged in conflict with the Islamic Republic and incurred all of the attendant expenses to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. Despite his stated convictions, the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding does not even deal with the issue. Given that Trump will be out of office in two-and-a-half years, the current presumptive ruling power in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), can easily sneer at his boasting.
Trump’s delusional notion that his Iranian interlocutors represent “regime change” reveals fatal ignorance, willful or otherwise. Forty-seven years of Islamist indoctrination of the cadre around Khomeini’s Vilayat-e faqih or “Guardianship of Islamist jurists” have not changed because of Trump’s “charm.”
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament and chief negotiator in talks with the United States, is a hard-core Islamist and a former IRGC commander who has engaged in taqiyya (dissimulation and deception) with a lightweight: U.S. Vice President JD Vance. Ghalibaf no doubt showered Trump with compliments, knowing that by flattering the president’s ego, the Americans would agree to paying the jizya (a tax levied on non-Muslim subjects in exchange for protection).
There is no historical precedent for Trump’s deal with Iran, in which a victor agrees to pay $300 billion in protection/tribute money to the defeated. Ending American sanctions on Iranian oil sales, allowing the Islamic Republic to keep its lethal missiles and the provision of billions of dollars Iran will use to fund worldwide terror—and provide massive amounts of arms and cash to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza, Judea and Samaria—is incomprehensible
The regime’s mullahs view the MoU correctly: They have defeated the Christian infidel where it counts most—at the negotiating table. To them, this deal is even better than the Treaty of Hudaibiyah in 628 C.E., which a weak Prophet Muhammad made with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca, only to attack Mecca later when he felt strong enough.
Trump has chosen to trust dictatorial Islamist countries like the Emirate of Qatar, the chief funder of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Hamas terror organization that rules Gaza. Apparently, the jet plane that the Qatari emir gave Trump as a gift made the Qataris “good people” who should be trusted.
Pakistan is another radical Sunni-Islamist state, and Erdoğan’s Turkey is a Muslim Brotherhood champion. None of them sees Trump and America as genuine friends, but rather, as powerful infidels that need to be appeased until Islam has the means to destroy them.
Trump was willing to gamble away his legacy as a dealmaker and peacemaker for a short-term pledge from the IRGC to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international trade. That single move shows the extent to which Trump surrendered to the clever Iranians, who will use the Strait to charge a tax—or whatever they may call it—on passing ships.
It is a precedent that will come back to haunt the United States and its allies, since other nations bordering on vital international waterways will begin charging passing ships as well.
American interests in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf in particular are to safeguard free commerce through this vital waterway, seek political stability in the region and expand the 2020 Abraham Accords. But as long as the Shi’ite fanatics rule Iran, Trump’s visions of peace, stability and freedom of navigation will never materialize.
The IRGC, the power behind Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has discovered that the way to intimidate the international community is to leverage its control of the Strait of Hormuz. Sooner or later, tolls will be charged and, so long as this Iranian regime exists, neither regional peace nor stability will be realized. Moreover, the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas will continue to provoke war against Israel and attack any party that Iran orders them to attack.
The allies in World War II were determined to impose unconditional surrender on Nazi Germany and to purge the country of its Nazi ideology and death cult. The current regime in Tehran and its death cult must also be purged. There is no way to reach a settlement with such a regime.
And yet, the Trump administration has sacrificed the interests of the Israelis and the Iranian people by thinking it can moderate a Nazi-like regime that calls for the death of the American “Great Satan” and vows to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Moreover, the president has betrayed Israel by linking Lebanon to its deal with Iran while insulting the nation’s leadership on the world stage. Israel is and has been America’s staunchest ally. It has proved its skill and prowess by fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States. Jerusalem has now been disposed of just to appease its mortal enemy.
Trump’s MoU will go down as one of history’s greatest failures.
