Iran Is More Than A Movie: A Poverty-Stricken And Failing Country
15 March 2013
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed
The Academy Award winning movie "Argo," which tells
the story of six US Embassy staffers who hid in the
Canadian Embassy in Tehran during the Iran hostage
crisis has incited diverse reactions.
The movie tells a short chapter in the long and tense
relationship between the US and Iran. These relations
are currently more tense than ever. Who would have
believed that this tense and strained bilateral
relationship would last for 33 years? This represents
a long period of disputes, diplomatic estrangement,
and indirect wars. The past three decades have
witnessed significant changes in the reality of the
revolutionary phase and the geo-political map;
leaderships have changed, countries have fallen, and
alliances have shifted. Despite all this, Tehran has
not changed much. In fact Iran has become fiercer in
its tendency to resort to violence, and its desire to
expand its influence. The Soviet Union has collapsed
and China has changed, while even Vietnam and Cuba
have become more open to Washington. The regimes of
figures like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi have
been toppled. Many international relations concepts
have changed, particularly our understanding of
globalization and communication. Even concepts like
influence and sovereignty have completely changed.
However the old Iran, as envisioned by Khomeini,
remains the same. It previously hated the ‘Great
Satan' as a result of a mixture of history, ideology,
and politics. However it presently hates the US
because it believes that this Great Satan is
preventing it from fulfilling its ambition of
possessing nuclear weapons and dominating the region.
It is completely natural for a superpower to block an
"enemy" state from possessing nuclear weapons that can
destroy oil fields and ignite the world or which could
be used to arm terrorist organizations. It is also
normal for a superpower to confront an "enemy" state's
ceaseless attempts to gain regional domination,
establishing an aggressive regional bloc that will one
day pose a threat to its security and interests.
During the Iran hostage crisis, we believed that this
was an expression of pent-up anger and it was
completely predictable that the US Embassy would be a
prime target. However three decades later, Iran is
still Iran, despite many attempts by Iranian figures
to reform the ideology of its leaders and ensure that
the country enjoys international respectability. All
such attempts met with failure. The first attempt was
by the first president of the Islamic Republic,
Abulhassan Banisadr, and his story exceeds even that
of Argo in terms of drama. For twenty years, Banisadr—side
by side with Khomeini—struggled against the Shah, and
he was loyal to the Iranian Supreme Guide. He also won
the presidential elections against seven opponents but
only remained in office for one year after Khomeini
accused him of incompetence in confronting the Iraqi
forces. He went into hiding and fled the country, with
some reports claiming that he fled via the Turkish
border disguised in a military outfit. There was also
Mohammad Khatami, the fifth president of Iran who came
to power with around 70 percent of votes. There have
been hundreds of politicians, religious figures, and
intellectuals that have been persecuted, despite the
fact that they form the heart of the regime and took
part in the revolution. They all failed to alter the
political mentality of Tehran.
We are currently witnessing a worse era in Iranian
governance, particularly as the star of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is in the ascendancy,
dominating the state's key political, intelligence,
and economic institutions. Today, the IRGC is behind
the fires that have been ignited in Yemen, Syria,
Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza.
The movie "Argo" takes place during the first year
after the Iranian revolution. Back then, we were
optimistic, particularly as the ousted Shah had been
full of paranoia and dreamt of military domination and
restoring the Persian Empire. He spent the last decade
of his rule clashing with Gulf States that existed in
a state of heightened concern, particularly during
this phase of British withdrawal. However we were
doomed to disappointment for when Khomeini took over
we discovered that he suffered from precisely the same
disease. He explicitly and unashamedly announced his
project to expand Iranian influence into the Arab
region. This time, however, it was in the name of
Islam. Khomeini's project has led to a Sunni–Shi'ite
dispute, the likes of which the world has not known
since the collapse of the Umayyad Empire more than 13
centuries ago.
Iran may be a fierce military power but it is also a
poverty-stricken and failing country.
Al
Rashed is the general manager of Al -Arabiya
television. He is also the former editor-in-chief of
Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly
magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in
the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is
a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He
has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs.
He is currently based in Dubai.
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