Yoram Ettinger“Israel Hayom,”
The July 2015 nuclear agreement with the Ayatollahs of Iran is perceived by the USA as a binding, strategic agreement of peaceful coexistence with Iran. In contrast, the Ayatollahs view it as a tenuous, tactical agreement, advancing an offensive strategy against “the arrogant, infidel American Great Satan,” to be abrogated as is the fate of agreements with “infidels” according to the Quran and the legacy of Muhammad. The Ayatollahs consider the agreement a phase in the removal of “the modern day infidel American crusader” from the Persian Gulf and the India Ocean, in order to advance Iran’s 2,500-year-old historic goal of dominating the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and the globe.
Moreover, the Ayatollahs consider the agreement a reaffirmation of Western vacillation and retreat, thus intensifying their rogue conduct, as documented by their domestic, regional and global track record and school textbooks. The latter are the most authentic reflection of the strategy, tactics, character, worldview and general direction of rogue regimes, such as the Ayatollahs, effectively producing cadres of “martyrs” (terrorists and suicide bombers).
Reaching a constructive agreement with the Ayatollahs requires a dramatic transformation of their school textbooks, strategy and tactics. On the other hand, reaching an agreement with the Ayatollahs, while the current school textbooks, strategy and tactics are in place, could start the countdown to the first ever nuclear war (please see below on Iran’s indoctrinating curriculum).
According to Human Rights Watch, “Iran is, again, the regional leader of executions.” Since the signing of the 2015 nuclear agreement, and under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, human rights standards have deteriorated.
Bolstered by billions of dollars in cash transfers, the reclaimed $150BN of frozen assets, and the suspension of US and global sanctions, the Ayatollahs have expanded their subversive and terrorist involvement in each pro-US Arab country in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula (e.g., the oil-rich al-Hasa region in Saudi Arabia). Moreover, while the US has rolled-back its sanctions against the Ayatollahs, the latter have rolled-back most inhibitions in their strategic ties with Russia. Furthermore, pro-US Arab regimes such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco have softened their position on Russia, in response to the dramatic erosion of the US posture of deterrence since the signing of the April 2015 nuclear agreement with the Ayatollahs, who are perceived, by the pro-US Arab regimes, as a clear and present machete at their throats.
The Ayatollahs have intensified their involvement in the civil war in Yemen, striving to control the most critical oil and military waterways of the Bab al-Mandab Straits (connecting the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean) and the Hormuz straits (connecting the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf). Meddling in Yemen also advances the Ayatollahs goal of regime-change in Saudi Arabia, which borders Yemen.
The Ayatollahs’ long-hand has reached Latin America, bolstering strategic and cultural ties with Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, deepening their presence – directly and via Hezbollah and other Islamic terror organizations – in the tri-border region of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Reflecting the Ayatollahs’ determination to become a nuclear power, they have tightened their nuclear and ballistic cooperation with, and in, North Korea, which facilitates circumvention of the monitoring of the nuclear program in Iran. They have exceeded their quota for heavy water production, acquired illegal technology and have test-fired ballistic missiles, which are capable of delivering nuclear weapons, in violation of the July 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls for Iran to desist from such testing for eight years.
Relying on Western eagerness to sustain the July 2015 agreement at any price, they have repeatedly harassed US military forces in the Persian Gulf.
The rolled-back sanctions have not rolled-back the Ayatollahs’ hate-education, as recently documented by Prof. Eldad Pardo, of the Hebrew University and the Institute of Monitoring Peace and Tolerance in School Education, who has researched Iran’s school textbooks for the last 11 years: “In a sixth grade textbook, child martyrdom is revered (The Little Leader, grade 6, pp. 58-64)…. The martyrdom of girls has recently been introduced into the curriculum (Defense Readiness, grade 10, pp. 59-63)…. Students are instructed to join a millenarian frenzy of training and preparation, constant emergency, blind obedience and actual participation in conflicts, at home and abroad (Religion and Life, grade 12, p. 124)….
“Iranian students study about dissimulation [taqiyeh] and misleading the enemy. They learn that in times of need, dissimulation and temporary pacts—even with ‘un-Godly, idolatrous governments’—are proper, but only until such time as the balance of power should change (Religion and Life, Grade 12, pp. 103–4). We know from Khamenei’s own words, that the recent nuclear negotiations followed the pattern of a historical treaty with an ‘illegitimate’ government… which was concluded in 661 CE between Imam Hassan and Mu’awiyah – intending to gain time, build power and gradually undermine the rival dynasty, but never genuinely reconciling, leading to the fateful battle of Karbala two decades later (Religion and Life, grade 12, p. 104).
“[Iran’s curriculum stipulates] the need for Jihad, child martyrdom and inevitable sacrifices are intensively and vividly inculcated into young minds…. [Iranian students] know that a Jihad war – requiring their possible martyrdom, for which they practice from first grade – could be launched as part of an attack on countries ruled by ‘oppressive regimes….’
“Education for child martyrdom continues, beginning with the first grade, all the way to grade 12…. Iranian girls and boys are educated to go to war at any moment, taught to see the world as overflowing with enemies of the Revolution, who resist the ‘true program of God….’ The students receive much instruction about the martyrs from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War [500,000 children who cleared the minefields for Iran’s troops]…. Children are instructed not to obey their parents in matters regarding martyrdom (Religious Rulings, grade 11, p. 14)….
According to Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the US is the chief target for the wrath of the Ayatollahs, because it constitutes the most effective obstacle on the Ayatollahs’ megalomaniacal road to Islamize the global order and subjugate humanity to their agenda: “We have a fundamental problem with the West and especially with America [‘the arrogant ones’]…. This is because we are claimants of a mission, with a global dimension….”
The linkage between the Ayatollahs’ curriculum and overall supremacist, global strategy behooves the US Congress – the coequal and codetermining branch of government – to conduct a series of hearings on the merit of adherence to the July 2015 nuclear agreement, while the Ayatollahs do not roll-back their millenarian, anti-US curriculum.