by Nathan Ronen
Khamenei gazed at him with a cynical smile. “As far as I’m concerned, Soleimani is a man who has sacrificed himself on the front several times and survived. He’s not a man who sits in an air-conditioned office in distant Teheran, shuffling papers. He’s always on the ground, in combat areas, beside his soldiers, accessible and attentive to their distress.”
President Rahimi nodded in agreement.
“But I do like your Machiavellian ‘divide and conquer’ idea. Let’s move to the conference room. They’re waiting for us,” Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei concluded.
All members of the Supreme National Security Council, already sitting and waiting around the large table, rose to their feet as the Supreme Leader and the president entered.
Supreme Leader Khamenei opened the meeting. “The Islamic regime in Iran shall be the instrument defeating the enemies of Islam… We must fight the cancerous growth: Israel.”
All members of the Supreme National Security Council, which included the most senior forum of constituents in Iran, were sitting around a large oval table in the roomy conference hall with its wood-heavy décor.
At the head of the table sat Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, his white beard and thin metal-framed glasses granting him the appearance of a dire prophet.
“Dear brothers,” he continued his speech, “I want to remind you of the Shiite concept of taqiya.35 Since Shia came into being in the middle of the seventh century, it has been persecuted by the Sunni majority, to the extent that the lives of Shiites have been in constant danger, and in many cases when they were caught, they were brutally murdered. In order to survive, over the years, we Shiites have developed the culture of taqiya, or ‘the need to survive.’ It is a culture that allowed us to survive in a hostile environment, despite our faith and our political orientation. A major component of taqiya is hudna’a, meaning deception or dissembling. Throughout 1,350 years of battle with the Sunni, we Shiites have developed the culture of taqiya and hudna’a into an art form.
“Iran will stand firm, now and in the future, against the plots of the front of arrogance and Zionism, which strive to create war and struggle between Muslims. With Allah’s help, we will win this war, just as we are chopping down the nefarious tree of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. For many years, we have been subject to plots, pressure, and sanctions against the Islamic regime on behalf of America and Zionism. Despite all these pressures, Iran has made immense progress and stands proud and firm against the Zionist front at its worst. I say explicitly to all our enemies that Iran will offer assistance wherever its presence is needed in order to fight heresy and arrogance. On this matter, we will make no concessions. The world of Islam can currently withstand heresy and arrogance. The Islamic regime in Iran, which desires to wholly execute Islamic sharia,36 will be the instrument that defeats the enemies of Islam.”37
President Hussein Rahimi took over. “At the heart of the Iranian revolution is the ideology of ‘exporting the revolution’ to other countries and instilling the idea of the guardianship of religious scholars (vilayat-e faqih) in the regional and even the global arena. The value of ‘the annihilation of Israel’ is also a central motif in the ideology of the regime of Iran’s Muslim revolution and constitutes a raison d’être for the regime. Through the power of this vision, the Iranian regime has managed to transform Iran into a regional and even global superpower, which has in recent years expanded its hold to four capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa, as well as three seas: the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.”38
Rahimi paused briefly, then continued. “I want to say we must take advantage of the fact that the United States is still ruled, for a short time longer, by a Black president who is angry at the Israeli prime minister, due to that prime minister’s involvement in support of the Republican candidate during the American elections. I believe he wants to sign a nuclear agreement with Iran. We will operate according to the principles of Muslim taqiya in our interactions with him. We have to play a chess game with the United States, in which we are willing to sacrifice pieces so that the economic sanctions against us are removed. Meanwhile, we must also conceal the continuation of our nuclear program, which will ensure Iran’s supremacy as a regional superpower. This will deter Sunni countries from attacking us, as happened in our major war against Sunni Iraq, which lasted a decade.”
Rahimi finished speaking and invited the minister in charge of intelligence services, Sayyid Muhammad Alawi, to the podium.
Alawi stepped up and expressed his anger at the Israeli Mossad’s interference, which included passing on information to the Danish intelligence agency. Recently, the Danes had thus managed to foil attack initiatives by Iranian security agencies aimed against Iranian resistance organizations in Copenhagen.
“We have made several previous attempts in Paris to eliminate the head of Mojahedin-e Khalq, that traitorous bitch Maryam Halachi,” he added, “but Israeli agents were a step ahead of us. Some of our agents were arrested and others were eliminated by the security agencies of those counties, aided by the Israeli Mossad. I think the time has come to enlist the aid of our friend Iman al-Uzbeki, who has done some commendable activities for Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb. We’ll send him to London to execute a terrorist attack against the Jewish community, which supports Israel financially and politically. Just like we did in Buenos Aires in 1994 when Hezbollah attacked the Jewish community center and the Israeli Embassy in Argentina. The time has come to take advantage of the fact that London has long become a stronghold for Islam and ratchet up the tension there a bit. The problem is that Iman al-Uzbeki demands to be an independent contractor in London. He demands to be given free rein, since he doesn’t trust us, and I can’t blame him. We’re full of leaks, and the Israelis keep beating us to the punch. I think our strategic target should be taking down Thames House, headquarters of MI5, the British intelligence service, without leaving our fingerprints behind. It has to look like an Al-Qaeda or ISIS attack.”
President Rahimi looked to Ayatollah Khamenei as if seeking his approval, and the latter nodded in confirmation, causing the minister of intelligence to smile in satisfaction. Minister of Intelligence Alawi had made plenty of preparations for the meeting, and now the time had come to execute his plan of revenge. He left the room in order to talk to his emissary in London, Colonel Rizkawi, and pass on the much-expected authorization.
Khamenei signaled to Field Marshal Jafari to step up to the podium and address the assembly.
Mohammad Ali Jafari, tall and handsome, took his place behind the podium. The hall grew still.
“In recent days, we have once again been hearing threats from Israel about their intentions to attack Iran,” he began. “I hereby officially declare that if Israel attacks Iran, we will no longer be willing to hold back in response to Israeli provocations. Provocations that began with the establishment of a surveillance base and leasing an air-force base in Azerbaijan, at Iran’s northern border, serving two combat F-35 squadrons. We are also angry due to the hits on our nuclear scientists, and the infiltration of the Stuxnet computer worm, which harmed our nuclear program by severely damaging our centrifuges. And now the Israelis have stolen 200 tons of enriched uranium we stored in Chad, and exposed our nuclear archive, causing the Americans to renege on the nuclear agreement and consider reinstating financial sanctions against us. Our Supreme Leader has instructed Quds Force to create the Eastern Shiite Crescent, which will begin to deploy through the Golan Heights and, along with Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, will create an arc that will threaten the Zionist entity. Via direct flights through Syria, we’re providing Hezbollah with accurate rocket artillery; we continue to act against Sunni power centers, we’re arming the Houthis in Yemen so they can carry out attacks against the Saudis. We are sending weapons to the Polisario Front39 in southern Morocco in order to destabilize the regime of King Mohammad, the Moroccan ‘Commander of the Faithful’; and
we’re making use of the Tuareg Berber tribes who live in the Sahel40 so that they can work as smugglers in the countries of the Sahel, thus forming an illegal trafficking network to the uranium-rich countries of the region.
“Simultaneously, our Quds Force has recruited families from the ‘Shiite Foreign Legion,’ which includes mercenaries of Pakistani, Turkmen, and Afghan origin, as well as Iraqi Shiites from the Al-Fakher militia, totaling several tens of thousands, in order to create Shiite dominance in Syria while ethnically cleansing those opposing the regime in the Daraa region. We take care not to have any of our Revolutionary Guard commanders on the ground, which grants us logistic flexibility and reduces the risk of attack by Israeli or American forces. We’re operating discreetly. We’ve reached an agreement with Syrian President Assad to integrate some of these Shiite militia fighters into the regular Syrian territorial brigades in order to prevent the Israelis from bombing them.
“The Israelis conduct constant aerial attacks against us. They aren’t allowing our proxy forces to deploy within the Golan Heights and aren’t enabling us to convey sophisticated rocket artillery to our ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, because they’re aware of the fact that we’re closing in around them. Therefore, I suggest we get clever and ambush them through the Shiite militias, which at the moment are in favor with the Iraqi government since they’re assisting them in the annihilation of ISIS in the north. I want to make special mention of al-Nujaba, or ‘Movement of the Party of God’s Nobles,’ who have lost many of their warriors in the fight against ISIS. We intend to send long-range surface-to-surface missiles to the Afghan Fatemyioun Brigade, fighting on the Iraq-Syria border in the Abu Kamal area. Such missiles can target Israel from western Iraq, the same range from which Saddam Hussein shot at them in 1991. Such a course of action, performed from within Iraq by Iraqi militias, will not provide Israel with justification for attacking Syria or Lebanon. Furthermore, they can’t attack Iraq without coordinating with the Americans, who have already informed Israel that any action it takes in Iraq might endanger American forces protecting the regime in Baghdad. Any Israeli intent to attack our allies in Iraq will require it to coordinate with Jordan and Saudi Arabia, whose airspace the Israeli planes will be flying through, and I doubt they would approve such a request.
“In summary, as you can see, we’re far from stagnant. We’re in a continuing campaign against the Jews, constantly honing our creative strategies against Israel. I intend to ask General Qasem Soleimani to take off soon for a meeting with Hezbollah’s commander-in-chief in Lebanon so that they can start initiating special missions targeting Israel from Lebanon. I have a special plan in mind for them, which I have presented to the Supreme Leader in private, receiving his approval.”
Applause echoed from every direction. Jafari was the attendees’ favorite: an ego-less professional, straight as an arrow, and with no political aspirations. He was a brave man who was not afraid to confront the political echelon as well, as he had unlimited support from the Supreme Leader, to whom he was directly subordinate.
The next speaker was Qasem Soleimani. Dressed in an immaculately pressed greenish khaki outfit, he stepped up to the podium and began his review. “Our military strategists are stricken with obsessive fear when confronted with ‘Little Satan’ Israel, and I say, enough is enough!”
Jafari did not like the arrow of criticism aimed at him by his rival.
With his right hand, Soleimani toyed with a large, unique ring he wore on his left hand, embedded with a red onyx stone called a Suleiman agate, which he had received from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. This made the ring much more than a mere piece of jewelry. His enemies saw this as a type of bragging.
He began by saying, “We know the Israelis are conducting a covert war against us through intelligence operations, cyberattacks, feeding false information about us to the global media, and launching attacks by proxy, which can then be denied. They set Mojahedin-e Khalq forces against us, and also aid Sunni Muslim tribes in Turkmenistan and Balochistan, at our northeast border, in rebelling against the central regime. Therefore, we must use the same tactics against them. The best example of what I mean is the Wagner Group. This is a paramilitary Russian organization sometimes described as a private military company. The group contracts itself out to carry out projects of a military nature all over the world, including taking part in battles in conflict areas. They’re organized as units of commando soldiers unified as mercenaries or a private army. Utilizing an army of private mercenaries has clear advantages. The most important of these is the lack of a need to conduct official state funerals when they are killed, which prevents the need to acknowledge that they are working in President Putin’s service. Therefore, there is no need to claim responsibility for their actions in the international arena. We’ll do the same, with the help of the Shiite Foreign Legion I’ve established, consisting of a hundred thousand people, whom I’m deploying to the Golan Heights, close to the borders of Israel.
“In 2014, the Israelis attacked our protégé, the Hamas movement, an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, in Gaza. They called it ‘Operation Protective Edge.’41 The lesson I learned from this military operation is that we must provide Hamas the strategic resources it needs to initiate war on several fronts. Next time, the residents of southern Israel won’t be the only ones sitting in bomb shelters; they’ll be joined by the residents of Tel Aviv and central Israel, the Galilee, and the Golan Heights, who’ll be targeted by coordinated attacks from the Shiite Legion in the Golan Heights and Lebanon. If we help Hamas take control of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, all residents of central Israel will be the target of missiles from the West Bank. But, in order for this to happen, we must supply them with resources and money and seize control of the Palestinian Authority, which at the moment is in the midst of a war of survival and is cooperating with Israel and the United States.
“It’s true that the Turkish president is our religious rival and aspires to be the caliph of the Muslim world, but he supports our cause against the Zionists. Therefore, we must take advantage of Turkey’s infrastructures in order to train the ones fighting for us. The Turkish minister of finance has already authorized us to establish a shell corporation called IMES for money-laundering purposes, which has allowed us to launder millions of dollars, seemingly intended for benevolent societies and charity, which were transferred to Gaza and to Hamas activists in the West Bank.
“We have to take advantage of the fact that we saved the Syrian regime from defeat opposite the rebels there, along with our protégé, the Lebanese Hezbollah organization. The moment it becomes clear that ISIS in Syria is about to collapse, we have to transport our forces into the Golan Heights, near the Israeli border. They’ve established a surveillance station near our border at Azerbaijan and are also conducting training flights for a squadron of F-35 stealth aircraft, landing in a former Soviet airfield leased to them in return for an arms deal with Azerbaijan. As an ‘eye for an eye’ tactic, I suggest we also station combat helicopters along their northern border, as well as unmanned drones for intelligence purposes while deepening our technological cooperation with Syria to develop accurate missiles that can strike any location in Israel.
“Much to my chagrin, I have to admit that the Israeli intelligence is doing a ‘good job,’ maybe because we’re as leaky as a pasta strainer. That’s why they manage to locate and attack every arms delivery we send Hezbollah through Al-Mazzah Airport in Damascus. I suggest we get smart about this and start loading weapons, missiles, and advanced munitions only on planes leased from civilian airlines, preferably Russian ones since they wouldn’t dare harm the Russians.”
Qasem Soleimani concluded his speech and was rewarded with lukewarm applause. He was Khamenei’s wunderkind, but his arrogant behavior and antisocial personality evoked plenty of resistance among his fellow members of Revolutionary Guard HQ.
Khamenei summed up the Supreme National Security Co
uncil meeting. “I grant my initial agreement to everything proposed here. We’re moving on to the reaction phase, which consists of attacking Israel on all fronts. I liked the concept of a hybrid war. I authorize activating intelligence services, via Iman al-Uzbeki, in a special operation in Europe. I authorize Shiite Crescent activity on Israel’s borders as leverage to close down its bases in Azerbaijan. If the Russians apply pressure on us, we’ll be willing to back off, in return for the closure of the Israeli bases acting against us at our border. I authorize the special initiatives against the Israeli economy, which we discussed privately with Qasem Soleimani. And there’s one more little thing I want to discuss privately with Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari.” He concluded his speech and signaled the admiral to step into the Supreme Leader’s inner bureau. Jafari accompanied them there.
“I can’t stand being humiliated by the Israelis anymore,” Khamenei declared. “We will no longer hold back! I want you to hit the Israelis where it hurts them most. I want you to target their most strategic vessel, their most phallic characteristic. A strike that will hurt them and humiliate their hubris, but without leaving our fingerprints.”
He gestured to Minister of Intelligence Sayyid Muhammad Alawi, who produced a batch of American documents from a closed leather file. The documents contained the details of a shared American, French, and Australian maneuver focusing on anti-submarine warfare, scheduled to take place in ten days at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. The drill was called SHAREM 195.
The admiral, who could not read English, looked at the documents in confusion. He recognized the logo of the American Fifth Fleet immediately and therefore realized that his country’s intelligence services had a high-level spy stationed in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, who had managed to gain access to Fifth Fleet secrets.
