The international community must stop the Iranian regime's interference in the region, the mullahs a dangerous octopus

West must change its policy towards Iran regime

West must change its policy towards Iran regime

Dramatic missteps and miscalculations have defined Iran
policy in Europe and the Americas over these past several
years. Indeed, many mistakes that are ongoing to this day
date back to the immediate aftermath of the Iranian
Revolution in 1979. It seems that almost as soon as the
repressive theocratic government came to power, its Western
interlocutors were looking for opportunities to foster
cooperation with that regime and to pursue friendships with
supposed moderate factions within it.


It is long past time for Western governments to change their
Middle East policy. It is long past time for them to cease
pursuing the illusion of Iran’s internal moderation, and to
start investing their political capital in the existing
alternative to the clerical regime.  Earlier this month,
former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died
after spending nearly four decades playing his role as the
focal point of conciliatory Western policies. In his absence,
Western governments now have a clear choice. On one hand, to
continue to invest in a regime that is likely to go even more
hardline now that the leading “pragmatist” is gone. Or, on
the other hand, they can break with a decades-long tradition
of ignoring human rights abuses and marginalizing Iran’s
democratic opposition to finally begin to pursue a better
future both for true Western interests and for the Iranian
people.