Iranian oppositionist: Iran and Russia share a common ideology

Recently, Russia has gained a new ally, Iran, which supplies it with drones and ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine. Moscow and Tehran cooperate in many areas, but what really brings the two regimes together is ideology, says Iranian oppositionist Vahid Beheshti. He was forced to leave his country 25 years ago and now lives in London.

What Iran and Russia have in common, how they attack Western civilization from different directions, and how dangerous Iran remains, Vahid Beheshti told RBC-Ukraine in an interview.

What Russia and Iran have in common

I have to turn to the theories and ideologues of Russia that are in Vladimir Putin's mind. There is a person named Alexander Dugin. This person comes to Iran every two or three months.

Dugin says that the common denominator between the regime in Iran and the regime in Russia is that both are anti-Western. He also says that Russia has the same ideology as Mahdism in Iran. According to him, they, as a branch of Orthodox Christianity, believe in the return of the Catechist, that he will return, like the Mahdi, like Jesus. (The Catechist in Orthodoxy is a historical entity, usually a state, with a mission to prevent the final triumph of evil in history and the coming of the Antichrist - ed.)

So Russia and Iran can work side by side together. As you can see, the Iranian regime is fully behind Russia and is providing drones and missiles to Russia to kill our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. Because they see that by attacking Ukraine, they are attacking the West. And as you can see, today Russia is supporting the Iranian regime in its war with Israel. They see that by attacking Israel, they are again attacking the West.

How ideology influences Iran's actions

If you listen to their theories, they believe that there are 12 saints (imams, successors of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam - ed.) There is the Mahdi (the messiah in the Islamic tradition - ed.), who is still alive after 1400 years, and he will return. (In the ninth century, the last, 12th imam disappeared after a lost battle. His body was never found. The Shiites, who make up the majority of the population in Iran, believe that he is still alive, in hiding, and will return at the end of time.) So they see themselves as having a divine mission to prepare the world for the appearance of the hidden imam, or Mahdi.

So what is the preparation for the appearance of the Imam? The world in which we live now, with its modern democratic values and human rights, from their point of view, personifies evil. So for this reason they have to turn the modern world into an Islamic state, a caliphate.

To do this, they must destroy Western civilization. And as a first step toward this, they must destroy the state of Israel and the Jewish people. So this is their ideology and mentality, their goal and mission. And that's why you see all these actions in the region, in Europe, and in the U.S. So they have been very active for the last 35 years, 40 years.

I remember 25 or 27 years ago, they passed a law in the parliament to allocate about 17 million dollars for the creation of one film called “The Land of the Prophet Solomon” to demonize the Jewish people. And the same for Westerners - investments in Europe, in America. They have created many different associations, charities, and Islamic centers to brainwash our youth and radicalize them.

They have invested billions to influence our politicians and our mainstream media. So, they have unarmed proxies that they are active, and they have armed proxies, which are about 16-17 in the Middle East region - Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hashd al-Shaabi and others.

Iran is a “paper tiger”

If you see that Iranian President Peseshkian is now coming to the UN and starting to talk about peace, it does not mean that the Iranian leadership is changing its path, strategy and ideology. This is due to the great military power of Israel.

If we look at what Israel has done, it is a series of pinpoint operations in Iran and beyond. I'm 100% sure that the explosion of President Raisi's helicopter was a very precise Israeli job (the Iranian president died in a plane crash on May 19. The official version is that it was due to poor visibility in the mountains - ed.) But the Iranian regime did not even have the courage to announce this, because if they said it was Israel's work, they would have to take revenge.

The second case was the assassination of Ismail Ghaniyeh (head of the Hamas political bureau, killed on the day of the inauguration of the new Iranian president on July 31 - ed. Israel could have destroyed him anywhere in the world. But this was a very thoughtful and precise operation that took place in Iran that day. It humiliated Khamenei and his regime. Ismail Ghaniyeh was Khamenei's special guest, so his security was even higher than that of Ali Khamenei's son. But Israel eliminated only Ghaniyeh and his bodyguard, not anyone else.

I am the only Iranian in the last 45 years who has made a speech in the Israeli parliament. There I said that the Iranian regime is a “paper tiger”. Therefore, we should not be afraid to attack the facilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps inside Iran, the buildings of high-ranking regime officials, and Iran's nuclear facilities.

Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 18/10/2024