Iran and the United States: The Rise and Fall of the Brief Détente

Abstract

By creating the revolutionary paradigm in foreign policy, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini positioned the Islamic Republic as the leader in the struggle against Western imperialism. The United States of America was, as noted in the preceding chapter, the immediate target of this ambitious mission. Setting the tone of the discourse, Ayatollah Khomeini called America the “Great Satan” (Shaytan-e Bozorog), which, according to the Quranic tradition, represented all the evil forces in the world under the leadership of the archdevil Iblis. As the “republic of virtue,” it was Iran’s task to liberate the world from the “Great Satan” and his coalition. For those not well versed in the Islamic theology, the Supreme Leader explained that the United States was a leader of the imperialist camp, which subjugated the “oppressed” in the developing countries. In yet another Quranic reference, Ayatollah Khomeini defined capitalism as a corrupter of the earth.