Episode 62: Islamic Republic Day and Palestine

First aired on 1 April 2023

The 1st of April marks the forty-fourth anniversary of the declaration of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Islamic Republic Day marks the date that the results of the March 1979 Iranian Islamic Republic referendum were announced with a 98.2% vote for the establishment of an Islamic republic. This came two months after the revolution deposed the Shah, the Western-backed dictator.

The Shah of Iran maintained positive relations with the Zionist entity, supplying it with 60% of its oil needs. The revolution changed all that.

Even before the Islamic Revolution, there were significant relations between the revolutionary forces and the resistance in Palestine. PLO leader Yasir Arafat flew in to congratulate the Iranian people barely a week after the revolution

On that visit, referring to the training and other support given to the revolution by the Palestinians, Arafat declared: “no matter how much we have helped we cannot offer as much back as the Iranian people have offered us.”

Today the same logic endures and the Islamic Republic has been in a position to return the favour by supporting the Palestinians ever since.

The normalization of the Zionist regime has proceeded apace since President Trump sponsored the Abraham Accords of September 2020. Morocco, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have been at the forefront of normalizing the endemic racism of the Zionist entity.

But the announcement of the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran may be a potential geopolitical game changer. It is more than a simple change between two nations as we can see from the fact that it was brokered by the People’s Republic of China.

A Western-aligned think tank referred to the “burgeoning Saudi-Russia relationship” involving renewed efforts to prop up oil prices. The United Arab Emirates has also signaled a rapprochement with Palestinian and Iranian ally Syria.

The response from the Zionist entity is also instructive, with Netanyahu and the leader of the opposition blaming each other for what is seen as a setback.

The status of Iran in the world has changed significantly over the last forty-four years. Iranian expertise in the construction of military technology, including missiles and drones, has begun to make an impact on the world stage, and these are among the products that some reports suggest are being utilized by the Russians in Ukraine and by the Palestinians in Gaza.

We begin to see how the tectonic plates of geopolitical change might mean a serious reversal of normalization as a multipolar re-alignment moves into view. This is most likely to be good news for those who favor the liberation of Palestine.