For more than four decades the world has been told to treat the rulers of Iran as a normal government. They are not.

The regime that occupies Iran is not simply authoritarian. It is a theocratic kleptocracy built on terror, ideological expansion, and systematic crimes against humanity. Yet even now — when the regime stands at one of the weakest points in its history — global institutions and political elites are still trying to rehabilitate it.

The world should understand the danger of that mistake.

For years I warned that the Islamic Republic does not behave like a conventional state. It behaves like a revolutionary project with a global mission. Its own leaders have said so repeatedly. From the earliest days after the 1979 Islamic occupation of Iran, the regime’s founders openly declared their intention to export the revolution across borders.

That doctrine has never changed.

From Lebanon to Iraq, from Syria to Yemen, the regime built proxy armies, ideological militias, and intelligence networks designed to destabilize sovereign states. These networks were not accidental side projects. They were part of a deliberate strategy: create parallel military structures loyal not to the countries in which they operate, but to Tehran.

The model is simple and ruthless: “Army, People, Resistance.”

First infiltrate society through religious and cultural institutions. Then create militia forces modeled on the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards. Finally embed these militias inside the state structure until the country itself becomes an extension of Tehran’s power.

This blueprint has been replicated across the Middle East and beyond.

But the regime’s ambitions never stopped at the region.

For years Iranian diplomats and intelligence operatives used embassies and cultural programs as platforms for influence operations abroad. In Canada, we saw clear evidence of this strategy. Statements from officials connected to the Iranian embassy openly encouraged loyalists to occupy key positions in Western institutions while resisting integration into their host societies.

Such infiltration was not theoretical. It was documented by intelligence experts and prosecutors investigating Iranian terror networks across the globe.

This is precisely why Canada’s decision in 2012 to close the embassy of the Islamic Republic in Ottawa was........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)