The Iranian establishment — the officials and business leaders who exert the most influence — has reportedly had enough of the radicalism of the current regime and is looking to replace it with a less confrontational, albeit still Islamic, model.
That is the analysis of an expert interviewed by the UK Telegraph, which notes that Iranian leaders are quietly taking stock of the regime’s defeats in the region and concluding that constant fights against the West are not a good idea.
The Telegraph reported Thursday:
Arash Azizi, an Iranian historian and author of a book about [the late Iranian terror general Qasem] Soleimani, said others in the Iranian leadership may seize the opportunity for a fundamental reset of foreign policy.
“There is a big segment of the Iranian establishment which realises the gig is up: revolutionary Islamism devoted to confronting America is not going to get them anywhere,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean they want to be a liberal democracy, but they want to be more like Turkey or India, a big power in pursuit of their own interests.”
Some ordinary Iranian citizens, however, are celebrating the fall of Assad and told The Telegraph they hope the Ayatollah will go the same way.
The Iranian regime has violently repressed efforts at political change since taking power in a bloody revolution in 1979.
But after investing much of the country’s wealth in war, including its failed project to shore up the Syrian regime, and its failing strategy of surrounding Israel with terrorist proxies, the regime is suddenly perceived as weak.
And with President-elect Donald Trump about to take office in the U.S., promising to restore sanctions that could cut off Iran’s access to oil markets, some Iranian leaders may be looking for opportunities for change that avoid a total collapse.
The Iranian people are said to be the most pro-American in the Middle East, outside of Israel, and there could be many opportunities for cooperation and prosperity once Iran stopped trying to destroy Israel, America, and the West.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
