AhlulBayt News Agency: In an interview with Khamenei news Dr. Masoud Asadollahi, senior expert and political analyst in the field of resistance, analyzes the recent speeches of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution about Operation Al-Aqsa Storm and the difficult conditions of the Zionist regime after this operation.
Question: From the very first day of the war, attempts were made to link the Palestinian resistance’s operation to Iran and say it was whether provoked by Iran or the country had a direct role in it. However, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei took a firm stand and said, “We support Palestine. We support their fight . . . but this action was carried out by the Palestinians themselves. Intelligent designers, the brave youth, and active, self-sacrificing Palestinians have been able to create this epic.” Could you elaborate on this?
M. Asadollahi: Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, and even in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we have had a principle to support liberation movements. Back then, the term “resistance movements” or “Axis of Resistance” did not exist yet. Under this principle, the Islamic Republic considers itself religiously, morally, and legally obligated to support the liberation movements or resistance groups.
If a nation supports a just ideal or tries to achieve that ideal, the Islamic Republic considers itself obligated to support it and has not kept this a secret, especially since at the top of all ideals is that of the freedom of Palestine, a holy land revered by all divine religions, especially Islam as it was the first Qibla of Muslims. This support is not something that has been kept a secret. The whole world knows this, and Iran proudly declares that it supports them. However, Iran’s support does not mean giving orders to these groups or determining what they must or must not do. Iran’s relationship with its allies in the Axis of Resistance is not of this kind at all. Rather, the Islamic Republic respects these allies and considers them as equal to itself. It does not consider them as mercenaries to be ordered to do or not do something.
We have countries in the region that oppose Iran and the Axis of Resistance. They interact with groups with which they work as mercenaries. There is an expression in Arabic that says whoever has the money makes the decision. The Islamic Republic does not believe in this and says that it supports the cause because it is an important and justice-seeking cause, and that it will do whatever it can to support them, including through advice, but the decision-making for war and fighting and planning, as well as carrying out and determining the time of the operation is with them. This is a principle that has always existed and is not related to this particular operation. The Islamic Republic has always interacted with its allies in a way that it basically says: “You are free and it is true that I will help you, but the help is not conditional on you taking orders from me and you are free to take whatever action you see fit to achieve your ideals and the responsibility is on you. If your decision was right and you won, the honor of victory is yours and we are also proud to have supported you, and if you make a decision that turns out to be misguided and you fail, it is your responsibility again, because we didn’t force you to do a certain thing and we won’t, and we say that you support your cause and move forward, and the details are up to you.”
The process is the same in this operation as well, and Iran had no role in designing the operation, carrying it out, or determining its time. Although the Israelis were badly defeated in this operation, in order to say that they were not defeated by a small Palestinian group but were hit by a big government called Iran, they began to make such claims that even the Western world did not accept, as the US secretary of state and national security advisor explicitly said that they do not have any kind of evidence showing Iran played a role in the design, execution and timing of this operation.
This is a fixed principle and those who want to interact with Iran should know that Iran treats its allies very respectfully. If such groups reach out to some rich Arab countries, they will give them hundreds of times more funds than Iran, but they will not reach out to them because they know that they want to treat them as mercenaries. However, they approve of Iran even though its financial aid is much less than those countries, because Iran’s support is sincere and based on affection for these nations and justice-seeking ideals. We should be careful in our propagation not to attribute an operation that has been carried out successfully to ourselves on the Internet. Some zealous young people think that it is a service to the Islamic Republic to say that this big operation was the work of Iran, while this is the worst possible thing to do, as it is playing into the hands of the enemy. The enemy wants to accuse these groups of being Iran’s mercenaries. They level accusations against them by saying that Hezbollah, Hamas, or Islamic Jihad resistance movements have sacrificed their nations for the national interests of Iran, which is not the case at all. Iran has never asked a resistance group to carry out an operation, and it is up to them to decide and act. If they seek advisory aid, Iran is ready to offer its advisory opinion. For instance, on whether it is good from the point of view of military science to carry out a certain operation. And it is ultimately up to them to make the decision.
Question: The Leader of the Revolution, addressing a joint graduation ceremony for the cadets studying in the academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces earlier this month, emphasized that the October 7 operation by the Palestinian resistance against the occupying regime was an “irreparable defeat.” What exactly is the difference between the pre-October 7 occupying regime and the post-October 7 one and what effect has this move had on the entirety of this fake regime?
M. Asadollahi: The Leader of the Revolution noted that there is unanimity about the intelligence and military defeat of the Zionist regime in this war, but went further to say that the regime’s defeat is irreparable. If we interpret the incident only as an intelligence defeat — meaning that the Zionist regime’s intelligence agencies failed to predict this operation, that the regime’s army was in deep sleep and was not prepared, and that it took a day or two to pull itself together — then this will only be a part of reality, not all of it.
The Leader of the Revolution said that this defeat is irreparable. Well, a defeat in one battle can be compensated for in other battles and can be repaired. So what is it that cannot be repaired? The answer to this question comes from understanding the nature of the Zionist regime. If we understand the nature of the Zionist regime well, then we will realize what the Leader of the Revolution means exactly. The Zionist regime was formed from the beginning based on military power, terror, murder, and repression, and the army in this regime does not have a place as a defense institution but is the root of this regime. The root of the Zionist regime — the upright pole of the tent and the entire nature of the regime — is shaped around the army. This is not well-understood by many people because there is nothing like it anywhere in the world. There is a famous saying among experts studying the Zionist regime that “all governments have an army, but Israel is an army that has a government.” By taking a look at the history of this regime, one can see that the entire political system, the migration that took place, and the formation of the system were all based on the successes of this army. The Israeli army had become so invincible that there was no force in the entire West Asian region that was able to defeat this regime or at least target the interior of this regime. For them, wars always took place outside the occupied Palestinian territories, and it was always the enemies of the regime who were surprised and suffered a heavy defeat. In Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, this legend was smashed and the Zionist army was caught off guard, which was a clear and unprecedented intelligence and military defeat for them.
Second, they were caught up in a quick and short-term war. Hamas achieved all of its goals within two days. It had designed an offense and a defense. In the offense, within two days and for the first time, a fighting and resistant Muslim group managed to break through the borders and enter the lands of 1948, capture 22 Zionist settlements, and take many in the settlements as captives. Note that not all were taken captive in the war, but there are some soldiers who were taken captive in their homes. This means pure shock. The war was transferred to the Zionist-occupied territories. The offensive operation was short-term and was carried out in two days, after which Hamas entered the defensive phase. In fact, Hamas used the military strategy of the Zionist regime against the regime itself and destroyed the sanctity and grandeur of the Zionist army within the regime and throughout the world. The Zionist regime was once a superpower in terms of intelligence and was number one in the region militarily. But today, it has become clear that a small Palestinian resistance group — compared to the Israeli army — has managed to inflict an intelligence, military and technological defeat on this regime and deliver an unprecedented blow on its body.
This operation has destroyed the Zionist settlers’ trust in this regime. Certainty was achieved that there will be no security anymore for the Zionists in this regime. Reverse migration, which used to exist for some reasons but was very slow, has intensified in recent days. The Zionists are queuing up at the Ben Gurion Airport to leave the occupied territories and have faced a shortage of planes. Different countries have sent planes for the return of dual citizens living in the occupied territories to transfer these people to their own countries. None of these events have ever happened.
October 7 is a turning point. From October 7 onwards, that invincible Israel has turned into a regime whose hands and feet are tightly tied and is unable to defend its claims and people. From then on, the regime will have a crisis of legitimacy in the minds of the Zionists. Previously, the Zionists, without exception, believed that their government was legitimate because it was able to provide them with security and welfare. But now there is no intact security, and it turned out that in the next wars — whenever they may break out — Palestinian groups and Hezbollah will enter the occupied territory, as that cognitive and mental taboo has been broken in front of them.
(The views expressed in this interview are interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
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