The Bitter Lessons of Trusting the West

By: Kayhan Int’l

The regimes of the West, especially the US, should never be trusted, and this is clear from the long history of Iran’s dealings with them.
As a matter of fact, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), had said from the beginning of his political campaign to oust the British-installed and American-supported Pahlavi regime, that history is replete with examples that the West or any other power, are not the friend of Iran.
The same is the stance of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has always cautioned Iranian officials against biting the bait of the Western regimes.
If the US is the archenemy of Iran and the Iranian people and openly shows its hostility, France, Germany, and the old colonial power, Britain, are not any better.
The Europeans always tow Washington’s line, and the most evident example in this regard is the 2015 Geneva Accord on Iran’s right to use peaceful nuclear energy, regarding which Paris, Berlin, and London, never fulfilled their commitments following the blatant breach of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) by the US.
Although Joe Biden has long replaced the scoundrel Donald Trump in the White House, he has refused to drop the policy of economic terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ayatollah Khamenei in his recent meeting with the outgoing administration of President Hassan Rouhani referred to these facts saying:
I would like to repeat that statement and experience: It is about lack of trust in the West. Future generations should benefit from this experience. It became clear in this administration that trusting westerners does not work as they are not going to help us and they will strike a blow whenever they can and when they do not strike a blow, it is because they do not have the means to do so. Whenever they could, they dealt us a blow.
“The national affairs of the country should never become contingent on the cooperation of westerners because this will definitely lead to failure. Whenever you made your affairs contingent on westerners’ cooperation, you failed and whenever you moved forward and showed initiative without trusting westerners, you succeeded.”
These words of guidance should be heeded by the incoming administration of Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi, who has been given a very clear mandate by the Iranian voters rectify the wrongs of the past, and this includes correcting both the foreign and domestic policies, both of which seem to be in a mess today.