The bitter price of the naive policy of appeasement

Iran has been in a deep crisis since the Islamic revolution in 1979, when radical Islamists seized power. The extent of the crisis becomes apparent every few years when courageous Iranians dare to take to the streets and protest against the unjust regime. At least until the protests are brutally suppressed and thousands of people are arrested and then raped and abused behind bars.

The regime installed the Revolutionary Guards specifically for this purpose, in order to nip any opposition in the bud anytime, anywhere, locally and internationally. This is exactly what happened in 2019, 2017, during the so-called Green Revolution in 2009 and also in 1999. The protests, which have been going on for more than a month now, are deja vu in this respect.

But how long can an unjust regime stay afloat? How many more mothers, fathers and children must be murdered to remain in power? How long can Tehran contain oppressed minorities like the Kurds in the west and the Arabs in the south of the country? How long will the female half of the country allow themselves to be treated like subjects?

The country seems to be imploding. A little more every day. And that's good. Because history teaches us that fascist regimes do not usually disappear into thin air, but that the people have to climb up the barricades and fight in order to take their fate into their own hands. There is only one way Iran can find peace in the long term: to overthrow the system run by mullahs and the Revolutionary Guards.

The regime cannot be reformed. Any attempt by the mullahs to placate the people by promising reforms will turn out to be a lie designed to buy time to better target the protests.

The time is ripe to overthrow the Islamist occupiers of Persian high culture and the multicultural Iranian state. Because they are now not only responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Iranians, but now also for the deaths of many Ukrainians who were and are still being murdered by Iranian kamikaze drones deployed by Russia.

Israel has been warning for years that it should take the threat from Tehran seriously. The Iranian regime is working to become a nuclear power - and so will pose a potentially deadly threat to Europe. But even without the bomb, the regime is a threat to the West: just think of terrorist attacks against members of the opposition on European soil, e.g. in the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin in 1992. But also the massive support of a large number of Shiite and Sunni terrorist networks, which also have a foothold in Germany have caught.

The major Western powers, including Germany, have lost many years, in the naïve will to appease the inhumane injustice regime in Tehran, to bring them to the table, to engage in dialogue and at the end to shake hands in a relaxed and friendly manner.

It was wasted time. Today, women, men and children in Iran and Ukraine are paying the bitter price for the naïve appeasement policy of the western states – with their lives.

But what would have to happen now for the mullah regime to fall? Is it this time that the revolution will be successful?

I am getting reports of mullahs who are on the run and more and more video footage of regime henchmen who are unable to arrest demonstrators - because dozens of proud and brave Iranians are standing up to them and fleeing them.

And it is precisely this resistance from the population that could be the decisive game changer. Perhaps the army leadership now senses their chance to liberate the country from the occupiers and oppressors - and to pave the way for a new free and democratic system. It would be desirable for the country.

Arye Sharuz Shalicar, who grew up in Berlin, is a German-Persian-Israeli political scientist and writer. He was an adviser to the former Israeli foreign minister and is a reserve spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In October he published “Shalom Habibi. Turning point for Jewish-Muslim friendship and peace”.