Iran’s Islamic Revolution inspired MENA awakening: Kamel Wazne

A political analyst tells Press TV that the revolution of Iran has sent a message of hope for a lot of the people throughout the Middle East, North Africa and several other parts of the world who are actually under the mandate of the American and the Western influence.

The comments came after Iranians staged mass rallies across the country to mark the 34th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that put an end to the monarchy of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in the country. People in the capital Tehran and many other cities and towns started to take to streets on Sunday morning to reaffirm their allegiance to the ideals of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kamel Wazne, political analyst from Beirut, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Some of those who have been studying the revolutions throughout the course of history, throughout various nations, they have been saying it is almost unheard of for a revolution to involve as much as one percent of a country’s population. The French revolution for instance of 1789, the Russian revolution of 1917, perhaps the Romanian revolution of 1989, these may have past the one percent mark yet in Iran we are hearing that percentage was much higher and again when we are looking at the reasons behind this, what Mr. Marandi here in the Tehran studio was telling us was the fact that Iran was so much dependant on the West especially the United States in lot of aspects.

After the revolution Mr. Wazne, do you see the regional countries, the regional nations seeing Iran as now an independent country that is no longer relying on that Western, especially US supporting still being able to cope?

Wazne: First of all my greeting to you and to your guest and to the Iranian people and my congratulation for this great revolution, Islamic revolution.

We have to remember this is an Islamic revolution, it is based on teachings of Islam, it is based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and it is based on the experience of Karbala and basically that is why this is beyond any revolution to be compared because when you have the people in Iran and throughout the world, the Muslim world celebrate this revolution because everyone has inside of us this virtue and this element of faith that we embrace on a daily basis.

When we go to prayer, when we look upon Almighty God to help us, so basically when we talk about revolution and the people who backed the revolution, those people who backed the revolution, those faithful people who go to mosque on a daily basis, who pray to God everyday and that is what this revolution is all about.

It is about determination and basically the carrying duties as a Muslim to have an independent voice in this crowded world. You know that this revolution was actually to put the Iranian people away from the colonization and the United States and the Great Britain influence which basically installed the Shah because they wanted to rob the Iranian people of their natural recourses and to continue their domination over that country.

Obviously today, the message today with these tens of millions on the streets is send a message of determination that the Iranian people [are] steadfast with this revolution and they embrace every aspect of it.

Just I was reading early in the morning just a poll that was conducted by the Washington Post and actually they took a sample of one thousand Iranian represent the country and they found that two-third of the Iranians actually blame the United States for everything that is happening to Iran and especially with the sanctions.

And they said it was very hard to conduct that survey by contacting the Iranians but the Iranians overwhelming with the revolution, with the peaceful nuclear technology that Iran is working on and this is a testament for actually the Iranian and its achievement because this is actually a Western country conducting a poll which it is very hard to do in Iran and overall majority is actually blaming the United States and with Iran right for economic prosperity and sovereignty and this is a testament in a day where millions of people actually [are] marching in this revolution.

Press TV: A lot of people were saying after the popular uprisings that took place in the Middle East and in North Africa, we also heard a lot being said here in Iran of how those movements were being influenced by the course of Iran’s Islamic revolution and how the way that things changed in Iran through popular will influenced the rather people who were calling for the same ideals across the region?

Wazne: Well obviously the revolution of Iran sent a lot of message of hope for a lot of these people who [have] been actually under the mandate of the American and the Western influence. For very long time this dictators throughout the Middle East [have] been put by the United States or it is in Egypt or other part of the world [have] been actually protected by these dominate powers , the Western world and the United States.

They have their own interest and obviously the Islamic revolution gave hope because we have the Shah was a stronger allies of the United States in that region and was able to be toppled by the Islamic revolution and a lot of people looked upon the Islamic revolution to liberate their land and their territory.

Example is what happened in Lebanon, actually with the guidance of the revolution the people of Lebanon have been able to defeat the Israeli and force them to withdraw, cowardly withdraw from Lebanon- with the issue of Palestine, a lot of those fighters actually looked upon the revolution in Iran- with Iraq, if you look at, yesterday was actually the anniversary of the second withdrawal, if you want to call it, or first withdrawal of the Americans from Iraq.

It is actually those people took their cue from the Iranian revolution. In Egypt and throughout the Middle East, in Bahrain, these issues actually took their cue from the Iranian revolution but you have to remember these all, they looked upon the revolution of Iran that actually took cue of the experience of Imam Hussein in Karbala because this is the ultimate revolution that actually put the whole world in a different notice…

Press TV: Mr. Wazne, I’ll stop you there if I may, what is standing in the way of talks on an equal basis between the United States and Iran?

Wazne: It is basically the attitude that the United States has towards Iran. I think they wanted Iran to come to its knee and submit to the will of the United States and to submit to the will of the Israeli and that is something that is not going to happen, not now not in the future.

I think the Iranian people, they wanted to engage the international community but not as a point gun as the Supreme leader of the Iranian revolution said. You cannot impose sanctions days after days and every day, every month you add more to the sanction and to the suffering that they think it will have on the Iranian people and the Iranian people in their mind they will act against the government.

Today actually that sampling of the Iranian people shows that the Iranian people are resilient with their government, with their leadership. They know the sanctions, they blame it on the United States, it back fired on the United States, and it actually unified the Iranian people because this is an attack by the United States against the people of Iran.

If the Americans wanted real negotiation on this issue they have to make as my friend in Tehran said, they have to make goodwill and those gestures- they have to start lifting those sanctions.

In my estimate these sanctions are war crimes because they [are] affecting the livelihood of the people, when you prevent medicine, basic needs of the Iranian, those amount to war crimes that has been committed by the United States since the beginning of the revolution.

It is time for the Americans to understand that these actions will not twist the Iranian resolve, the Iranian are resilient and they will continue to be resilient. To start with, start lifting these sanctions and I think the Iranian you will see a positive response from the Iranian leadership and a better environment within the Iranian people.