Elijah J. Magnier — Iran’s Leader of the Revolution recommends four steps for confronting the US

Backgrounder.

Here is a bit of background for the backgrounder provided by Elijah J. Magnier. Iran's Leader of the Revolution is Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Born in 1939, he was President of Iran from 1981until 1989, when succeeded Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini. 

In addition to being the supreme theocrat, the Grand Ayatollah is also a good strategist, with a comprehensive vision for Iran

Most Iranians are Shi'ite, a sect that comprises about 10% of the worldwide Islamic population. Iran is the center of Shi'a, with the Grand Ayatollah occupying a position that may be compared to the medieval Popes.

There has been tension between the majority Sunnis and the Shi'ites since the disagreements that arose among the Prophet's followers after his passing. This has been a running feud, comparable to the historical conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Western Christendom. 

 Islamic leaders in general, along with Christian leaders, are traditionalists and they have a much narrower view of liberalism than prevails socially and politically in the West, which they view as libertinism. They view the Western concept of freedom as license. This sets traditionalists, even liberal traditionalists, at odds with the prevailing Western liberalism driven by consumerism, with economic utility being interpreted as gratification.

Christendom, like Islam, is not only a religion of many sects and schools of thought, but also a cultural and institutional phenomenon that is social, political and economic. Without understand the historical dynamic, it is impossible to understand the historical dialectic. When Israel is added to the mix the situation becomes even more complicated, since Judaism, like Christendom and Islam, as not only a religion but also a cultural and institutional phenomenon. These world views are traditionalist and in opposition to much of Western liberalism, especially its contemporary form.

Thus, the attempt to impose "Western values" on traditional societies is viewed as not only contradictory in that it is illiberal, but also immoral. Unfortunately, modern ideological conflict is reminiscent of medieval religious wars.

Elijah J. Magnier — Middle East Politics
Iran’s Leader of the Revolution recommends four steps for confronting the US

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Tehran eyes path ahead after US withdrawal from nuclear pact — Pepe Escobar interviews Ahmad Bahmani,

The insider scoop.

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Tehran eyes path ahead after US withdrawal from nuclear pact

Pepe Escobar interviews Ahmad Bahmani, Europe and Americas adviser to Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Pepe Escobar — So What Happens Next in Iran?

Not only Iranian politics but the whole of Southwest Asia enter another era after the heart attack, this past Sunday, that killed Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 82, president from 1989 to 1997 and a stalwart of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.…

With Rafsanjani out, it's safe to assume hardliners such as Ahmadinejad, the former head of the judiciary Mohammad Yazdi, and the ultra-hardcore Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a.k.a "The Crocodile", will be back with a vengeance.

And there's an even more earth-shattering problem. Crucially, last year Rafsanjani got the most votes in the election of the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the all-powerful clerical club that approves Ayatollah Khamenei's successor. It was virtually a done deal that Rafsanjani would have got his candidate to win the Big Prize. Not anymore. Marandi qualifies the Rafsanjani era as "a roller coaster ride for a brilliant politician." For Iran, the real roller coaster ride might as well start now.

 Backgrounder on Iranian politics.

Sputnik International

So What Happens Next in Iran?
Pepe Escobar 

OAN — Iran Says U.S. Has Plan To Divide Iraq, Pleads With Iraqis To Resist

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the United States of trying to divide Iraq along sectarian and ethnic lines and urged Iraqis to withstand any such plans.…

“The Americans must not be allowed to consider Iraq as their personal property … and dare to openly talk about disintegration of Iraq,” Khamenei said according to his website.

“The Iraqi people, Shi’ites, Sunnis, Kurds and Arabs have been living together peacefully but some regional countries and some foreigners are trying to amplify differences among them,” he added.…

In August, outgoing U.S. Army chief of staff General Ray Odierno drew condemnation from Baghdad and Tehran when he said reconciliation between Shi’ites and Sunnis in Iraq was becoming harder and that partitioning the country “might be the only solution.”…

During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Khamenei called for closer bilateral ties between Tehran and Moscow to thwart what he called “Washington’s plots”.

OAN
Iran Says U.S. Has Plan To Divide Iraq, Pleads With Iraqis To Resist

Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

Sputnik International — Iranian Leader Says Country Should Become Immune to International Sanctions

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran stressed the need to protect the country from sanctions imposed over its nuclear program.… 

“You should do something that will immunize the country against sanctions,” the Supreme leader was quoted by the media outlet as saying in an address to the crowd marking the anniversary of the 1977 anti-Shah uprising in the city of Qom.

Sputnik International
Iranian Leader Says Country Should Become Immune to International Sanctions

Gareth Porter — When the Ayatollah Said No to Nukes

Iran's WMD-is-against-Islam policy began with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and has been reiterated under Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Truthout
When the Ayatollah Said No to Nukes
Gareth Porter, Foreign Policy | Report

BTW, WMD were found in Iraq but they were the chemical and biological weapons that the West had provided to Saddam during his war with Iran when it looked as if Iran would win the war against the greatly outnumbered Iraqis. But that news was suppressed for political reasons. Saddam did use them against the Iranians and also against the Iraqi Kurds.