Iran

While Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are marketing their authoritarian rules as alternatives to a “moribund” Western democratic system, the Khomeinist mullahs in Tehran are also throwing their hat, sorry turban, into the ring as contenders for leading a New World Order.

An early version of the mullahs’ bid came almost 30 years ago, when Hojat al-Islam Muhammad Khatami suggested that, by separating religion from politics, the Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe had created a world order that fomented wars, slavery and colonialism. The way to salvation was to restore religious control of politics by granting theologians a role in the leadership.

The European Union is doing all it can to revive the nuclear deal and open the flow of funds to the Iranian regime, lift sanctions against Tehran, and put the ruling mullahs of the Islamic Republic on a legal path to becoming a nuclear state.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently travelled to the Islamic Republic, a “top state sponsor of terrorism” according to the State Department, in order to “reverse current tensions” and seal the nuclear deal. Apparently, Borrell succeeded at resuming the nuclear talks. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian bragged that he had “long but positive meeting” with Borrell on June 25, and added that “What is important for Iran is to fully receive the economic benefits of the 2015 accord”.

Iran and its terrorist proxies have intensified their efforts to sabotage US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to the Middle East, which is scheduled to take place in mid-July.

The effort to sabotage the visit comes amid reports that Biden will try to advance Israel-Saudi relations and broker a military alliance between Israel and a number of Arab countries to confront the threats and terror by Iran and its proxies.

According to the reports, Biden is planning to form a regional conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The coalition will include the US, Israel, and some Arab countries, including Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. “The new alliance is intended to contain Iran and, in the first stage, will be based on an air defense system against Iranian missiles and attack drones and cyber security measures,” said Prof. Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israel relations.

The Biden administration’s nuclear negotiations to revive the nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with Iran’s ruling mullahs are going nowhere, all while the administration does not seem to have a Plan B.

For the past two weeks a large number of Iranians, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have been taking part in protest marches in more than 100 cities across Iran to vent their anger against a system that they consider to be corrupt, incompetent and oppressive.

At the same time, the government is facing the threat of massive bread shortages later this year amid reports that wheat stocks have fallen to a record low while talks to purchase from Russia 6.2 million tons of wheat, more than half of Iran’s annual consumption, seem to have stalled.