Iran’s Islamic Revolution Achievements

The 38th anniversary of victory of the Islamic Revolution has arrived with a plethora of achievements for Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has left behind big developments both inside and abroad and has got a special status in the regional and global scenes.

In order to understand the developments of the past nearly 4 decades and the status of Iran in the global system we should see in what conditions the Islamic Revolution gained victory and how it has passed the crises and reached stability affecting the international developments.

The Islamic revolution of Iran gained victory during the bipolar system of world. Any uprising or revolution that was staged was affiliated to one of the eastern and western superpowers. In fact the global system after the World War II was divided between the two powers: USSR and the USA. Each of the two superpowers had satellite states in five continents of the world. While trying to preserve their domain, the two attempted to penetrate in the rival’s territory. As a result of this rivalry many regional and international wars broke out and millions of people lost their lives and the infrastructures of many poor countries were obliterated.

Iran was placed in western bloc under the US hegemony. Over 40 thousand American advisors came to in Iran with different titles. Former US President Richard Nixon, who was in office from 1969-1974, described Iran as the island of stability in West Asia. Nixon doctrine had repercussions in the Persian Gulf region with the policy called twin policy. Based on this policy, the Iranian and Saudi governments, as the two main columns of the US plans, had the mission of filling the power vacuum in the Persian Gulf region.

Giving economic and military aid to Iran and Saudi Arabia, the US empowered them as a tool for bolstering what it deemed as “security in the region”, without the need for having direct presence. Out of the two columns, the first option was Iran and the Saudi regime was noticed as the second column to provide financial support. Due to its low number of population, industrial backwardness and lack of firm administrative and political organizations, Saudi Arabia failed to be the gendarme of the region. Iran as the first column of Nixon doctrine, assumed the duty of gendarme of the region after the withdrawal of Britain from the Persian Gulf.

Nixon doctrine was implemented in countries which enjoyed the required capabilities for preserving the US interests and bolstering its influence. From Nixon’s viewpoint, Iran was the best choice. Existence of oil reserves in the south and Soviet communism in the north were the two causes for this choice. Among the regional states, Iran is the only country with full dominance over the Persian Gulf. According to the military researcher, Joshua Epstein, with reliance on several documents released by NATO, Pentagon and the Soviet military, Iran had amazingly got high importance in the US military strategy. To establish its regional strategy, the US had always been seeking allies that enjoy the stability and security required for its survival. In other words, the US could not rely on allies which were engaged in domestic unrest and could not secure the US interests. In view of this, the victory of the Islamic Revolution was a huge shock for the US.

Former member of US national Security Council, Gary Sick, says: Nobody was prepared to face Iran’s revolution. The government of Jimmy Carter was also surprised at culmination of the revolution and the quick overthrow of the monarchic regime of Iran. The Shah and his supporters had no proper understanding of what took place in the final months of 1979. Even weeks after the victory of the revolution, they could not make a logical analysis about the causes of the regime’s overthrow. For us acceptance of the point is very difficult. The deep contradiction between reality and our expectations was observed by the reports and the analysis which we relied on. Jimmy Carter, after failure in the 1980 presidential election said: This is very noteworthy that a president’s fate in campaigns is determined not by his American rival in Michigan, Pennsylvania or in New York but in Iran.

The point to note is that the Islamic Revolution is completely religious and gained victory with the slogan of reviving religious values under the leadership of Imam Khomeini who was the serious critic of the eastern and western colonialist policies. The Islamic revolution gained victory in contrast to the equations of the bipolar system ruling over the world and dealt a heavy blow on the US expansionist policies in West Asia. Iran’s freedom from the influence and hegemony of the Americans made them use every political, economic and military way against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Attempt for coup, support for the separatist groups in the borders, enforcement of economic sanctions and imposing the destructive 8-year war through the US puppet Saddam were among the most important  schemes for overthrowing the Islamic Republic system of Iran. But the Iranian nation and government unlike all other revolutions has reached stability in a short time and is achieving growth and development in every political, human, scientific, economic, social, cultural, security and defense domain. 

During the blessed life of the Islamic revolution, through trust in God and support of people the Islamic Revolution has gained great achievements so that today not only the fair western and eastern thinkers and observers, but the sworn enemies of Iran have acknowledged its glory and its high impact. Patrick Seale, analyst from Middle East on Line, stressing Iran’s turning into a brilliant democracy writes: Under the rule of theologians, Iran is considered one of the freest, most modern and robust countries of West Asia.

Interestingly, 38 years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, nearly 38 elections have been held. In the heat of war when Saddam bombarded Iranian cities, elections were held with no delay under bombs and missiles.

The neo-conservative think tank American Enterprise in a report has warned the American officials about Iran’s future status as the center of balance of power in the region. Today one of the great honours for the Islamic Republic of Iran is the increasing growth and the country’s active presence in scientific arenas. In terms of research, the Iranian researchers by registering 8513 scientific articles rank 16 in production of knowledge and Iran’s scientists and researchers are among the top scientists and researchers of the world. Access to the nuclear fuel technology and knowhow as the 6^th country entering the club of nuclear fuel and taking big strides toward new vistas of knowledge and gaining spectacular breakthroughs in new sciences such as Nano technology are among other progresses that the Islamic Republic of Iran has made. It should be noted that in the field of Nano technology the Islamic Republic stands at the 7^th position and is looking for reaching higher ranks in this domain.

Today the number of students has increased from about 175 thousand before the Islamic Revolution to over 4.2 million after it. Iran has made astounding progresses in production and development of various ballistic missiles, long-range surface to surface missiles, surface to air missiles and various sea missiles. These include Safir satellite-carrier missile, Shahab, Sejjil and Cruise missiles. These progresses have placed Iran among a handful of countries possessing the technology of developing highly precise surface-to-surface missiles. It should be noted that all these military breakthroughs have been designed and produced for defensive and deterrent purposes. Iran has enemies in the region and the world. These military achievements have been made so that no regime will even think of attacking and invading Iran since it will receive a crushing and irreparable response.

Despite all hostilities of some West Asian states and the trans-regional interventions by the US and Britain, the Islamic Republic of Iran has proved time and again that it wants peace, stability and security for itself and all regional states. Now that the west-fostered terrorism has become the source of threat for the region and the world, the Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country in the region which is seriously fighting terrorism in the region. This is a point which has been acknowledged even by the enemies. They have admitted that fighting terrorism is impossible without taking into account the role of Iran and seeking Iran’s help to this end. This shows the magnitude of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s influence in materializing peace, stability and security in West Asia (the region that the west likes to call Middle East).

Parstoday.com