The dimension of Operation Rising Lion raises doubts about Israel’s true objective. According to US secret services, the Israeli government has long been aiming to force a regime change in Iran. The explanation? “The previous monarchy was an ally of the West”
“I am with you, the Israelite people are with you.” These were the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the retaliation of Iran. An almost perfect motto for what many analysts believe is one of the main goals of the Hebrew state. The last dawn against Iranian targets and the continuation of several military operations throughout this Friday may have the ultimate goal to try to force a change of regime in Iran, according to US officials and some analysts. Tiago André Lopes, an international relations expert, admits to CNN that the idea may even be helping to restore the Pahlavi monarchy, which was overthrown in 1979.
The United States and Israel “have never hoped that this regime would later become a diplomatic nightmare and now the idea is a little on the contrary,” explains Tiago André Lopes, adding that, recently, “in the last two, three years,” the US -based monarchical family is “to appear in more interviews”, implying that “they are trying to force a change of regime, whether from the constitutional point of view or political point of view ”.
The expert refers to Persia’s Shah Times, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed in 1979, in an Islamic revolution that gave rise to the current regime of Ayatolos, who founded an Islamic Republic and extrecting positions in relation to Israel and the United States, and the previous regime was and remains a known American ally.
Reza Pahlavi, eldest son of the last Shah of Iran (Gettyimages)
In a speech broadcast by televisions, minutes after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister said that Operation Rising Lion, which reached the heart of the Iranian Nuclear Complex, “reaching the leader of the Iran’s Nuclear Nuclear Program,” Iranian nuclear scientists and Natanz Iranian Nuclear Central, where an important enrichment of enrichment is mounted Uranium, essential to nuclear weaponry production.
This Friday, the Israelite army suggested that Iran was working “in a secret plan” to develop “all components” of a nuclear weapon. “The Iranian regime is following a secret plan of technological advancement in all aspects of the development of a nuclear weapon,” says Israel’s defense forces (IDF) in a statement.
In recent months, according to the army, this program has accelerated significantly. “This is a clear proof that the Iranian regime is operating to obtain a nuclear weapon. The State of Israel has no other choice,” it is added in the statement that justifies the attacks.
But the dimension of Operation Rising Lion raises doubts about Israel’s true objective. According to US secret services, the Israeli government has long been aiming to force a regime change in Iran. The explanation? “The previous monarchy was an ally of the West,” he begins by saying James André Lopes, referring to the Pahlavi dynasty, which, he says, “was an ally of both the United States or the United Kingdom, and was also a supporter – it was not fervent, but was a supporter – of Israel.”
“The Pahlavi monarchy is, at the outset, the easiest way to change the Iranian political system, because there are still some ascendant, there are still many people who miss the previous regime,” says the expert in international relations, adding that, despite being “a little violent”, the Pahlavi monarchy regime “was very cosmopolitan”.
“For us, IRS, Iran in the 1950s allowed things that Portugal did not allow. In Tehran, women could walk a miniskirt, they could smoke, there was access to Coca-Cola, we did not have it in Portugal,” he compares in a parallel with the dictatorship of Salazar.
In this context, he assumes Tiago André Lopes, “the US obviously allowed a kind of public relations campaign to empower the Pahlavi family.”
The US president confirmed on Friday to the Wall Street Journal that the US was aware of Israel’s plans to attack Iran. Donald Trump described the Israeli operation as “a very successful attack to say the least.”
Asked about what kind of warning the US received before the attack, Trump replied, “Warning? It wasn’t a warning. It was … We know what’s going on.”
Before, Trump had already told CNN that “of course” that the US supports Israel and even threatened the Iran: “Iran must have heard me when I said-I know I gave them, I don’t know if they know, but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 6.
“The idea is that, coming back, we will return to a moment of normality,” explains Tiago André Lopes. “The problem is that we do not know if the change in the regime runs favorably. The regime can always be radicalized, it can be the same, there may be an attempt to change the regime that is failed and that is failed, there may be no willingness from the social point of view, there is no certainty that there is this will,” he adds that the consolidation of the current regime was approved by a large majority (over 98%) in a national referendum.
For Saudi Arabia, “the issue is irrelevant,” says Tiago André Lopes, stressing that “the difference between Saudi Arabia and Iran is not political, it is religious”, so much so that the Saudi Arabia condemned the Israeli attack on Iran’s targets this morning.
“Iran and Saudi Arabia have been reproaching for two years here, with Chinese effort. It is obvious that, protocolly, it is easier two royal houses to understand than a royal house and a civil house,” he says, “if there is an Iranian monarchy, the theoretically understanding would be simpler” between the two countries. “But it does not change the dynamics of conflict. They continue to be two states that have different views from the religious point of view,” he concludes.
