Iran's Islamic Revolution at 47: Defiance against empire and Zionist complicity

David Miller 

Source: Al Mayadeen English

On 11 February 2026, Iran commemorates the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution – a historic popular uprising that shattered Western-backed tyranny and established a sovereign Islamic Republic fiercely opposed to imperialism and the Zionist settler colony.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution erupted as a direct rejection of decades of foreign domination and brutal domestic repression. Iranians mobilised against the Pahlavi monarchy installed after the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup – Operation Ajax – that deposed democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh following his nationalisation of Iran's oil industry. As even mainstream sources document, the coup restored British and American control over Iranian resources at gunpoint.

Under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, repression reached new depths through SAVAK, the secret police force created with CIA assistance and trained by Mossad. SAVAK agents routinely tortured thousands of political prisoners using methods including whipping, electric shocks, nail-pulling, mock executions, and sexual violence. A former SAVAK torturer testified in court that he had personally tortured hundreds, describing routine use of whips, electric prods, and forced confessions under extreme duress. Amnesty International's 1976 report catalogued widespread use of the bastinado, boiling-water enemas, and acid drips, confirming systematic state terror designed to crush any opposition. The infamous Anti-Sabotage Joint Committee, a center of torture, is now preserved as a museum in central Tehran (Ebrat Museum).

This machinery of fear instead united diverse forces – clerics, bazaar merchants, students, workers, leftists – in massive street demonstrations. As contemporary scholarship records, over 10% of Iran's population participated in anti-Shah protests, the highest mobilisation rate of any modern revolution. The post-revolution referendum in March 1979 delivered nearly 90% turnout and 98% approval for the new Islamic Republic, cementing popular legitimacy for the new order.

The "Nest of Spies": Embassy seizure and document reconstruction

The revolution's anti-imperialist character found its most dramatic expression in the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979. Students stormed the compound – long suspected of serving as a CIA base – after Washington admitted the deposed Shah for medical treatment, widely interpreted as preparation for another coup. The students held 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days while meticulously reconstructing shredded classified documents.

Iranian carpet weavers and skilled volunteers pieced together thousands of torn pages, revealing extensive US espionage operations, coup planning, and attempts to subvert the revolution. The reconstructed files were published in a 77-volume series titled Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den.

As BBC reporting later noted, the revelations embarrassed Washington so deeply that possession of the volumes remains effectively prohibited in the United States. The former embassy, now a museum, preserves murals and exhibits chronicling American interference.

Jimmy Carter's response – Operation Eagle Claw – ended in humiliating failure. On 24 April 1980, eight US servicemen died when a helicopter collided with a fuel-laden transport plane amid a ferocious dust storm at Desert One. As official military accounts confirm, only five of eight helicopters reached the staging area, forcing mission abort. Iranian state media broadcast images of the burning wreckage worldwide, framing the disaster as divine retribution against imperial arrogance.

Enduring Resistance: Standing against the Zionist entity

Guided by Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolution established Iran as a leading force in opposition to the Zionist entity and support for Palestinian liberation. Khomeini's vision positioned the Islamic Republic as a model of resistance against settler-colonial occupation and Western hegemony. Iran has consistently backed Palestinian groups and other anti-Zionist movements confronting the Zionist regime's genocide in Gaza and beyond.

Today, the revolution faces dual threats. Internally, liberal reformists advocate economic concessions and accommodation with Washington, eroding core principles. Externally, the Zionist regime deploys Mossad agents and proxies in terror attacks, beheadings, assassinations, and cyber sabotage to destabilise Iran and prepare the ground for regime change. Recent footage shows armed provocateurs linked to Zionist intelligence operations inside Iranian territory. Iran's refusal to bend remains vital to the broader axis of resistance.

The Pahlavi restoration project: SAVAK's torturer returns

In exile, Reza Pahlavi and his supporters promote the so-called "Cyrus Accords" – a regional surrender plan mirroring the "Abraham Accords", normalising relations with the Zionist entity and integrating Iran into a nascent Pax Judaica. Central to this revival is Parviz Sabeti, former head of SAVAK's Third Directorate, now openly advising Pahlavi.

Under Sabeti's command, SAVAK maintained close intelligence-sharing with Mossad, targeting common enemies of the monarchy and the Zionist colony. Survivors describe horrors: the "Apollo" torture helmet that amplified screams during beatings, insertion of broken glass, genital electrocution, and rape. As Amnesty International documented, thousands endured these atrocities. PBS reporting highlighted Sabeti's role in the extrajudicial killing of political prisoners, including leftist intellectual Bijan Jazani.

Sabeti – reportedly holding Iranian, Israeli, and US citizenship – now appears at monarchist rallies in the United States, where some supporters brandish placards hailing him as the "nightmare of future terrorists." As Real Media detailed in a 2025 investigation, Sabeti surfaced at a 2023 California march against the Islamic Republic, and his image featured prominently on placards at a Munich rally supporting Reza Pahlavi, with the Farsi slogan "Nightmare of future terrorists" scrawled beneath, evoking his brutal legacy. Think Scotland reported on the chilling Munich display, likening the promotion of Sabeti to endorsing Heinrich Himmler, while a critique by the Free Iran Scholars Network noted similar posters at a 2023 event, alongside SAVAK flags, underscoring the movement's embrace of the Shah's repressive apparatus. The Free Iran Scholars Network is, as you might expect, affiliated with a different faction of the Iranian opposition, the cultish terror group the Mujahideen e-Kalq (MEK). The Scotsman echoed this, highlighting the Farsi slogan's endorsement of Sabeti's return as a dire warning.

Three survivors filed a $225 million lawsuit against him in Florida in 2025, accusing him of personally directing their torture, including rape and near-drowning. As The Guardian reported, plaintiffs explicitly fear that a Pahlavi restoration would revive SAVAK and permanently block justice for victims.

Towards a Third Republic: Renewing revolutionary zeal

47 years after the revolution toppled a US-Zionist puppet regime, its core lessons endure: popular mobilisation can defeat empire, self-reliance triumphs over sanctions, and uncompromising opposition to the Zionist settler colony inspires global struggles for justice.

Yet survival demands evolution. Defending the revolution requires defeating both monarchist restorationists and liberal reformists who seek Western integration at the expense of principle. The path forward lies in a reformed "Third Republic" – one that deepens economic justice, strengthens anti-corruption measures, empowers the Revolutionary Guard Corps against Zionist and US hybrid warfare, and renews commitment to Palestinian liberation.

Iran's steadfast resistance proves that empires and settler colonies eventually crumble when peoples refuse submission. The world’s leading anti-imperialist power faces existential threats, but determined action can, in the final analysis, defeat the Zionist colony and its push for global hegemony. The flame lit in 1979 must burn brighter still.