In 1988, when Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, was forced to accept the ceasefire that ended eight years of war with Iraq, the regime’s resources and strategic capacities had been exhausted, and the front lines were depleted of manpower.

This retreat meant abandoning slogans such as “War, war until victory,” “The road to Jerusalem passes through Karbala,” and “War until the last house in Tehran.” The war had cost more than one trillion dollars and, on the Iranian side, nearly two million dead and wounded.

Khomeini described this capitulation as “drinking the chalice of poison.”

To compensate for this strategic defeat, he launched what has been described as a genocide*. Through a fatwa issued in 1988, Khomeini ordered the massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners — detainees who remained steadfast in........

© Eurasia Review