In the early stages of its war against terrorism, Washington needed Iran's assistance. This is why a dialogue was started dealing with security issues and mediated by the UK. Despite the fact that Iran condemned the American invasion of Afghanistan, it agreed to support the U.S. on the ground. In October 2001, Iran helped in the rescue of American military personnel from threats in the region. It also allowed the U.S. to use one of its marine ports to ship wheat to combat areas in Afghanistan and assisted the North coalition forces until they gained control over Kabul. Khamenei condemned the invasion by saying "we denounce terror in all its forms, and we are opposed to the American invasion of Afghanistan. We refuse to enter into any coalition led by America." Yet his actions were the exact opposite. Several meetings were held by Khamenei before and during the invasion of Iraq. At least three of these meetings took place in 2003 (January, March and May), to discuss the situation in Iraq. The UN representative's presence during the meetings was only to accentuate that the indirect nature of the negotiations but he would quickly withdraw leaving the floor to the American and Iranian delegates for direct bilateral talks. Franco declared that the Spanish civil war had been won thanks to the fifth column; America uses the same method to win its wars. The U.S. keeps under wraps that it wouldn't have been able to invade Iraq that quickly, without the action of the Iranian fifth column. The Iranian fifth column welcomed the American forces in Baghdad, as a token of the Iranian-American coalition. America did not bet on petty agents during its 2003 invasion of Iraq, it relied on the Iranian role and Iranian allies. Communication between Iran and Washington became quite intense during the preparations for the war and the actual occupation of Baghdad. As the U.S. shot their first rocket at Baghdad, the Iranian-Iraqi forces were entering Iraq from all directions. They were led by Iranian consultants in complete coordination with Tehran. Tehran's intelligence was under America's disposal via Iran's agents. American forces were able to advance in Baghdad only after Iran's agents controlled the city. They were, Mohamed Baqir Al Hakim, Abdel Aziz Al Hakim, Nouri Al Maliki, Al Anzi, Ezz El Din Selim, Maguid Khouee, Al Sistany and Meftada Al Sadr. They and many more largely contributed to the taking of Baghdad and the U.S. owed them a debt of gratitude. After the war was over and the occupation settled in Baghdad, the repayment started. The Americans did not give the power to the agents they initially promised it to for years like Ahmed Galby, Al Wefaq group and the Islamic and Communist parties. Instead, they gave authority to Iranian people and agents who had allied with them during the invasion. That is how Hakim became the first ruler of Iraq, although he was actually imprisoned in the area of Khadraa, central Baghdad. Since the invasion, Al Hakim had played the principal coordinating role between Washington and Tehran. This is evidenced by his discreet or public shuttling between the two cities, all for the single purpose of sharing the Iraqi cake. Maliki and before him Alawi, were nothing but ornaments for the Al Hakim tribe which had armed militias on the ground, the same militiamen who originally cooperated with the American forces, killing, kidnapping, demolishing and detaining in Iraq. When we speak of gains, the destruction of Iraq was a very strategic American gift to Iran. Iraq was considered by Iran as a historical hurdle to its expansion in the Arab West, which is about the only strategic card that Iran has to play any role in the region. Otherwise it would only expand its influence through religious doctrine. Khamenei was playing the most important role in Iraq as secret communications between American President Barak Obama and Khamenei uncovered lately. These communications were filled with political flirting and intimacy. The first uncovering of this correspondence came through the Wall Street Journal from an anonymous Iranian diplomatic source. The source mentioned that Khamenei had sent a letter to Obama in reply to another letter sent October 2014 regarding counter-terrorism cooperation after reaching an agreement around Tehran's nuclear program. This relation was made very obvious during Obama's last visit to Saudi Arabia on the occasion of King Abdallah's, where he encouraged Saudis to talk to Iran. Using Al Qaida The relationship between Iran and Al Qaida is a very paradoxical and mysterious one. Although AQ's Takfiri (calling others infidels) doctrine is the traditional enemy of the Shiite, whose motherland is Iran, yet the relationship between the Sunni extremist organization, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Basdaran) and Iranian intelligence cells seems to be very positive indeed. The relationship between Iran and Al Qaida sponsored by Khamenei is as old as 1998. At this time Iran provided support for Al Qaida to bomb Nairobi and Darussalam according to a verdict issued by the Washington court in 2011. The verdict also revealed that some of Al Qaida's eminent leaders, among which Seif Al Adl, previously responsible for the organization's military branchas well as other members who were involved in the Nairobi blasts, received training at Hezbollah camps in southern Lebanon. During a New York court session in 2000, one of Al Qaida's militants confessed to organizing a meeting between Osama Bin Laden and Eman Moghania, former head of the Hezbollah intelligence in Sudan. Eman was killed in Damascus two years ago. He also said that Iran had trained Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihadi group militants on the use of explosives. In an interview with Al Jazeera channel in 2012, Abou Hefs, the Mauritanian former president of Al Qaeda's Sharia authority, said that the Iranians allowed entry to militants fleeing Afghanistan in pre-coordination with ‘specific entities' within the Iranian state. He also said that he had personally participated in training the people who allowed the entry into Iran of Al Qaida members and their their families. Some of them were leaders like Seif Al Adl and AQ Shura council members. Abou Hefs, who resigned from Al Qaida in objection to the 9/22 attacks, explained that the Iranians asked the AQ's militants not to launch any operations from Iran and they complied. He also asserted that he had to stay 10 years before he was allowed to go back to his hometown in Mauritania. He said the Iranian placed them almost under house arrest, restricting their movements. He also mentioned that the Iranians never interrogated them, but asked them simple questions to which they had the right to answer or not. Iran hosted Al Qaida leaders and some of Bin Laden's sons, while Al Qaida's branch in Iraq launched attacks under the leadership of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. It was a merciless war against Shiite Iraqi leaders under the pretext that they were Iranian allies. Khamenei was in favor of these operations, as Shiite groups felt threatened and fled to Iran. Hezbollah and the Agency of war The 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution, led by Khomeini, was a very strong impulse for Hezbollah to develop due to the doctrinal and political links with the new Al Qaida in Tehran. However, there had been an earlier materialization of Hezbollah in Lebanon as far back as 1982. The relationship between Hezbollah and Khomeini intertwines both political and religious aspects. Some Shiites in Lebanon are Hezbollah cadres and are linked to the spiritual leadership of Khomeini. Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah is considered as Khamenei's legal agent. Hezbollah receives all its political and financial support from Khamenei, which confirms that it is actually an Iranian party on Lebanese land, or so says Nasrallah: "We see in Iran a state that governs by Islamic law, a country that promotes Muslims and Arabs. Our relationship with Iran is one of cooperation. We are good friends with the regime. We share the same religious belief and the same struggle". Hezbollah has cost Iran much effort and money which came to good use. Their alliance helped improve Iran's image in the Sunni community while serving the Shiite project to revive the Iranian empire dream. Hezbollah represents a winning card for Iran which can be used to exert pressure on America whenever needed. An Incision in the Palestinian Body After the success of the Iranian revolution, the new regime, sponsored by Al Khomeini, hastened to raise the slogan of the Palestinian state. It presented late Yasser Arafat with the old Israeli embassy in Tehran to be converted into a Palestinian embassy. The Malaly regime understood that the Palestinian cause was the key to secure the success of any future deceitful goal. They used political dissimulation for a political aim and the Arabs bought it, thirsty as they were for any victory even if it was merely a slogan. Tehran does not strive to resolve the Palestinian crisis at all; it is too precious a tool that enables it to interfere in Arab affairs. When King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz initiated a solution for the Palestinian crisis in 1982, the Islamic Republic of Iran raised a media campaign aimed at aborting the initiative. They called it a ‘Western-Israeli' project that seeks to liquefy the Palestinian case, or even completely blow it up. The initiative was rejected by both the West and Israel. This was a sample of rejection to a solution for the Palestinian case, one in a long series of refusals to any Arab initiative aimed at ending the Palestinian people's sufferings and the establishment of their state. Iranian efforts were also made to stall any progress in the Palestinian case by sustaining the divisions among the Palestinians themselves, through their support of Hamas which lasted for decades. It obstructed any patriotic agreement between the two adversaries ‘Fatah and Hamas' or any attempt at and uniting to confront their common enemy. Iran doesn't want a resolution for the Palestinian crisis thus ensuring a major channel to meddle in Arab issues. It also strives to crack the Arab front, by mobilizing Shiite minorities in Arab countries to spread strife and disturb security. The relationship between Iran and Israel has never completely stopped since the 1979 revolution. Arms transactions at the time of the Iraq-Iran war are the best evidence of this relationship. The British Daily Telegraph recently published an article revealing that Israeli arms dealers were selling fighter planes spare-parts to Iran. The difference between the Pahlavi state and the one led by Khamenei with regards to the Palestinian case is a change in tools and methods, but objectives and methods remain the same. It looks like Iran has stopped using the frequently the rehashed term of ‘American Demon' these days and has gradually returned to Washington. It will not hesitate to do the same with Israel when and if its political gains warrant it. The Arab Spring and the Fifth Column Khamenei's famous speech in Arabic, January 28, 2011, addressing the Egyptian protestors was a message without prospect. The Egyptian youth in Tahrir square at the time, were not ‘old people in hospices' or members of a Sufi circle as he claimed, they were just young people very similar to the young Iranians protestors who took part in the media-dubbed ‘Green Revolution' of 2009. The protests were suppressed with extreme violence by the police following Khamenei's orders. The Egyptian youth expressed their solidarity to the young Iranian victims and voiced their rejection of Khamenei, his speech and his repressive regime. Through Khamenei's speech, the Iranian regime wanted to show its public that it was overwhelmingly popular in the Arab world and that it had influence on events in the region. In reality, the exact opposite is true; the streets that toppled Mubarak's and Ben Ali's regimes were not going to accept the directions of a reckless dictator who considers himself God's shadow on earth. Strangely enough, Tehran, since the very beginning of the so-called ‘Arab Spring' revolutions, claimed they were inspired by the Iranian experience of 1979. The Iranian official media presented the Arab revolutions in an extremely positive manner, with the exception of the Syrian revolution. They also started to portray Khamenei as the Imam (religious leader) of all the Arab revolutions, Iran would then become an ‘Imamate' instead of a Republic making Khamenei leader of the Muslim world. Khamenei then resorted to the greatest demon of all, the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization, and its ally. No one can forget the intimacy between the Brotherhood and Iran during Mohamed Morsi's presidency in Egypt. This era was also marked by an increase in the diplomatic representation and cooperation between the two countries to the extent that Egypt received its first Iranian tourist group. This intimacy justified Iran's rejection in considering the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, a decision announced by Iranian Deputy Foreign Affairs minister Hussein Amir Abdel Hayan in 2015. Khamenei after more than 3 decades since the success of the Iranian revolution does not dare to take to the street and communicate with his own people. How could he proclaim himself as ‘Wali (guardian) of all Muslims'? Khamenei's dreams of leadership and his conspiracies to control the region are destined to vanish without a trace. He will wake-up from a scary nightmare that has already started in Yemen.
