The American/Israeli Narrative: The Axis of Evil or Resistance
In 2002, after the invasion of Afghanistan, George Bush introduced the term "Axis of Evil." At that time, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were included in this axis. George Bush announced that this axis was the source and main supporter of terrorism and intended to acquire weapons of mass destruction. It didn't take long before they attacked Iraq under the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction. The bombs they dropped on the Iraqi people, based on a historical lie, killed one million and displaced several million. Iraq fell into constant chaos and unrest. The Iraqi people have been entrapped by two terrorist forces: state and Islamic terrorism. Still 23 years after the second war the society is in a complete state of chaos and terror. (US and its allies attacked Iraq in 1991 and then enforced a severe sanction on Iraq which led to a million deaths of the especially most vulnerable section: children and the elderly.)
Iran was then declared another military target. In reality, the US and NATO cannot attack North Korea because it has nuclear weapons. Such an attack will only take place when either military technology has developed to the point where it can disable nuclear weapons before the attack or when conditions have reached a point where nuclear war has become inevitable. It should be noted that Israel and the US are now threatening Iran with nuclear weapons.
The face of the Middle East has completely changed since 2001, when the US and its allies attacked Afghanistan and then Iraq. In fact, its existence as a geopolitical entity is under question. Now talks are about the next destructive aims of the US and the West, spearheaded by Israel, to occupy and destroy a wider region; Turkey and Pakistan are being talked about as the next targets.
The Middle East has been completely destroyed and almost any sign of civility and the ancient civilization in the region has been razed to the ground. (Now they are busy destroying Iran.) They are even destroying the nature of the region through bombing, aerial chemical spraying and uprooting olive trees in Palestine. The scenario is that in fifty years no one will remember the Middle East, its people, its culture and its civilisation. In early 2026 former CIA Director U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that history should focus on Israel as the victim rather than Palestinians in Gaza, saying:
We need to make sure that the story is told properly, so that when the history books write this, they don't write about the victims of Gaza.
This destruction is paving the way for the new Middle East and Greater Israel. (Their plan for Gaza, the “Middle East Riviera” with Trump’s hand-crafted Board of Peace presents the future of the region before our eyes.) In his speech to the US Congress several months after the genocide in Gaza began, Netanyahu spoke of the axis of evil versus the axis of civilization. He declared that the axis of evil must be destroyed. Iran was introduced as the head of this axis and the main threat to Western civilization. The other members of this axis are a number of Islamic terrorist organisations in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.
The term “Islamic terrorism” was coined by the so-called Zionist intellectuals and it was first publicly mentioned in a conference in DC in 1984 by Netanyahu. Since the 1990s when the “Clash of Civilisations” was introduced as the dominant discourse and order of the time the term became widely used. And the rest is history: the destruction of the region under the pretext of fighting Islamic terrorism. Israel and the US have been using the term Islamic terrorism for four decades now to justify genocide, killing, destruction and cleansing of the people of the region; they created all Islamic terrorist organisations and provided them with full financial, political and logistical support. The Mujahideen organisation in Afghanistan, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hamas and ISIS were all created and paid for by the CIA, Mossad and MI6. There are dozens of videos in which Netanyahu, Hillary Clinton, senior American and Israeli politicians, CIA personnel, journalists and reputable researchers have documented this history by presenting the facts. In addition, America, with the support of the West, brought the Islamic regime to power in Iran in 1979 and aborted the people's revolution. This is also a proven historical fact.
America, Israel and the West fed the people a fabricated narrative, created their own actors and unleashed them onto people. Like a Hollywood movie that was not made for the cinema screen but for the purpose of killing people and destroying a region. With this self-made monster of Islamic terrorism, they justified killing millions of people and causing a complete destruction in the entire region.
The whole world believed this story. The world fell into the trap of this false narrative and was mainly divided into two parts. Opponents of Islamic terrorism mainly sided with US and the West or imperialism, and on the other hand, opponents of American imperialism, people who had experienced the crimes of America, the West and Israel for decades, mainly tended towards the other pole.
In 2001, after the September 11th incident and the US and its allies' attack on Afghanistan, Mansour Hekmat in order to build a barrier against this trap, rightfully, identified American imperialism as State terrorism. He declared that two poles of terrorism, State and Islamic are threatening the world and they must be confronted by the third pole, the pole of freedom-loving and egalitarian humanity.
Now, twenty-five years later, after reaching the final stage of the new Middle East project, after all the historical facts that were previously called conspiracy theories in the mainstream media have been leaked, and recently parts of this project have been revealed in Epstein's emails, there should no longer be any doubt for any intelligent and truth-seeking person to see the true narrative and history of Islamic terrorism.
But among a large section of the Iranian left, this false narrative still plays a role. What Netanyahu calls the axis of evil is called the “axis of resistance” by the Islamic Republic and opponents of the United States and Israel. And this mouthful of a term has trapped the Iranian left movement. The section that calls itself a left movement but considers the United States to be the greater enemy is known as the supporters of the axis of resistance. This section is more active in Iran.
The other section of the left has allowed its rightful deep hatred of the Islamic Republic to blind its critical mind and practically swallow the entire American and Israeli narrative about the role, position, and power of this so-called axis of resistance. We have seen the destructive effect of this approach and vision, especially in the past two and a half years, since the beginning of the recent Israeli genocide in Gaza. Amidst the astonishment and criticism of the international left, the Iranian left has played a largely passive role in relation to the genocide in Gaza, in support of and solidarity with the people of Gaza and the region, and in condemnation of Israel, the United States, and the West. In relation to Palestine, the presence of Hamas and the fake support of the Islamic Republic were cited as an excuse and justification for this inaction.
This section of the Iranian left accepted Israel’s October 7 narrative: a narrative that has been exposed to be false by Israel’s own media. Sometimes, even after two years of genocide and brutal crimes, every time they condemned Israel, they also felt obliged to condemn Hamas. This tactic has, incidentally, ended up harming the leftist movement and benefiting the Islamic Republic and Hamas. In the eyes of justice-seeking, conscientious, humanitarian, and freedom-loving people, the Islamic Republic has acquired a positive image, and its false position as the axis of resistance is receiving wider acceptance in the region and the world. People, fed up with the killing, suppression, exploitation, occupation, and bullying of American imperialism, with the complicity of the West and the spearheading of Israel, automatically consider the force that fights this pole of violence and oppression to be their friend and ally. This is common logic and reasoning. The psychology and mentality of a large part of the people act in this way. Therefore, conscious, radical and communist forces must explain the situation and spread awareness.
However, majority of the Iranian left movement has adopted a more or less passive approach towards the movements seeking justice and the resistance of the oppressed against violence and killing from Palestine to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Sudan and Somalia. It can be said that the Iranian left suffers from a degree of nationalism. It reacts immediately and with passion in regards to issues related to Iran and Kurdistan, but a kind of inertia prevails over the rest of the world. In addition, where the Islamic Republic, Hamas or the axis of resistance are involved, this passivity leads to complete boycott. This policy of passivity and boycott has severely damaged the image of the left movement and has made the Islamic Republic more popular.
Now a similar method has been adopted regarding the war of the US and Israel on the people and society of Iran. Accepting the narrative of the US and Israel, that the main cause of chaos and destruction in the region is the axis of resistance and at its head the Islamic Republic, has led the majority of the left to a wrong analysis of the war, in such a way that they call the Islamic Republic the main cause of this war and define the war between the Islamic Republic and the US and Israel.
This war is first and foremost a war against the people and society of Iran; a war of US imperialism spearheaded by Israel to destroy the society and the lives of the people. They intend to raze Iran to the ground like Syria, Libya and Iraq and destroy any kind of civilization in society. Creating a dark scenario is their primary goal. Eliminating or reshaping the Islamic Republic is also their other goal. As we have previously mentioned on various occasions, in the “New Middle East”, Islam’s position and role must change. Their project is to completely marginalise Islamic terrorism and bring modern Islam to the forefront. The sheikhdoms, in particular, have displayed some aspects of this new Islam on various occasions over the past few years.
It is clear that the Islamic Republic is in war to preserve its existence. And it is also clear that it is a repressive and reactionary state. But just because the Islamic regime is launching missiles in response to the bombings and killing of its leader does not make this war a “war between two reactionary states.” US and Israel attacked Iran - according to Pentagon they began military actions in the middle of the negotiation. This war has killed many, ruined many densely populated residential areas, hospitals and schools, ruined many important infrastructure of the country; it has created an environmental disaster which would take victims for decades. This is first and foremost a full force attack on the society and the people.
But why does it matter how we formulate the war? If you define a war as an attack by an aggressor against a people and a country the reaction of the people across the world will be different compared to when it is defined as a war between two reactionary states. In the first case people’s solidarity will be stronger and more active. If the two poles of reaction are fighting each other, the role of resistance and protest against that war will be diminished. In addition, the criminal and oppressive role of the United States and Israel will be largely whitewashed. Islamic Regime is a brutal and repressive dictatorship. All Iranian people and many people in the world are aware of this truth. We don’t need to add more crimes to its case. We have enough evidence to convict all its top echelon figures of crimes against humanity. Balance and coherence of analysis and a principled political stance dictate that we open our eyes to the truth, and look more sharply and critically at the world and its political institutions and equations.
In analysing the US/Israel’s war against Iran, we must also take the international reactions into consideration. One must see and understand how millions around the world who have been suffering in the hands of US imperialism and Israeli aggression, killings and ethnic cleansing of the region are actually jubilant in the way Islamic Regime is defending itself, attacking Israel and American bases in the region. It is decades that all the states in the region, the so-called “Arab” or “Muslim,” have tolerated Israeli crimes and genocide. This is automatic human reaction to rejoice when their enemy is being attacked. Therefore, as the Iranian progressive, left or Communist movement we need to voice our hatred against the war and the Islamic regime and bring awareness in the international anti-imperialist movement or among ordinary people who are daily repressed and oppressed by US/Israel.
By boycotting the anti-war, anti-US/Israel war against Iran because there are some Islamic regime’s flags in the protest, the left is shooting itself in the foot, as it only leaves the scene for the regime and the soc-called Axis of Resistance. A very vivid example of how Islamic Regime is becoming popular can be seen in Sudan. Following the Islamic regime's missile attacks, the United Arab Emirates has suffered blows that have forced it to withdraw its support for the RSF terrorist group in Sudan. This terrorist group has been responsible for widespread killing, rape, starvation, and displacement of the Sudanese people. The United Arab Emirates is plundering Sudan's gold and diamonds. The recent withdrawal has reduced the atmosphere of death and killing in Sudan, and people are taking a breather. It is reported that celebrations and joy have begun in Sudan. It should be easy for a communist and Marxist to understand these conditions, but a significant part of the left in Iran has turned its back on this reality and has condemned, rejected and branded anyone who rejoices in the attacks by the Islamic Republic with the axis of resistance.
This part of the left has fallen between two stools! Soon it will be completely irrelevant in the Iranian and regional politics. We must understand these conditions; try to reveal the true and criminal nature of the Islamic Republic to the widest possible section of the people of the world. We must try to show that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. We must try to join the world justice-seeking, freedom-seeking and humanitarian movement. We must try to expose and discredit the Islamic Republic. By confronting the war and bullying of America and Israel, as well as by organising the people to confront the dangers of war and maintain hope and solidarity within the country and help organise a broad anti-war movement abroad, we can protect society from complete collapse and destitute, and in appropriate circumstances, use our organised power against the regime and for its revolutionary overthrow.
No to war,
No to Islamic Republic!
No to foreign intervention!
Power in the hands of the people!
⏩ Asar Majed is the Chairperson of Organisation for Women’s Liberation.
