Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei calls for 'de-Americanisation' of the Middle East

Iran’s Supreme Leader has called for the “de-Americanisation’ of the Middle East, citing the war in Gaza as a key factor in that process.

Speaking to members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Basij militia on Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, stated that the 7 October operation by Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, into Israel was a historic event and that the result will be “de-Americanisation” of the region.

Khamenei claimed that the US had failed in Lebanon due to the domination of much of the country by the Iran-backed movement and militia, Hezbollah. “They wanted to destroy Hezbollah. In their new plan, one part of the plan was to destroy Hezbollah. Hezbollah became 10 times stronger”.

A key component of the American order in the Middle East that he cited is the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, with Washington’s aim apparently being “to end the Palestinian issue in favour of the usurping regime [Israel]”.

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The Supreme Leader also highlighted the link between the US’s hegemony in the region and its attempt to alter aspects of geography there. “They said they want to give a new map to this region, which they named the Middle East. The new Middle East means a new political geography map”, he said. Part of Iran’s method to counter that, then, is reportedly to refer to the region as “West Asia” instead of the “Middle East”.

That “new map” cited by the Supreme Leader must include Palestine, he emphasised, saying “it means the establishment of Palestinian sovereignty in all the land”. One solution he cited towards that goal could apparently be a referendum in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The role of the United States in the Middle East will inevitably be overturned, he said, comparing it to overturning a table or removing the US from the region’s own “table”. Rather than countries in the region actively severing relations with Washington, however, he speculated that US dominance is and will continue to simply weaken exponentially.

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