The 2018 uprising in Iran highlighted the desire of the Iranian people to overthrow the mullahs’ regime from Iran. One of the slogans of the uprising which was initiated by Tehran University students was “reformists, hardliners, the game is over”.
This slogan marked the fact that Iranian people were fed up with the West’s appeasement policy and the game the regime was playing under the pretext of so-called moderates inside the regime. It also underlined Iranian people’s yearning to overthrow the regime in its entirety. The slogan also showed how people of Iran are disgusted by Western government’s appeasement policy. It marked the start of the end of the appeasement policy of the West, especially the U.S.
Nowadays, the Iranian regime’s state-media are acknowledging that this slogan was not just the slogan of a few thousand students, but it was a widespread demand of the Iranian people and today this demand is even deeper and more common.
On August 14, 2019 the official IRNA news agency interviewed Sadeq Zibakalam, one of the analysts of appeasement policy in the regime. In the interview Zibakalam acknowledged that the slogan marked the end of the appeasement policy.
“Strangely that slogan in the unrests of 2018 saying ‘reformists, hardliners, the game is over,’ has continued, mentioned and opened its way in the society. Well, it shows that in the pretext of political sociology it was acceptable for the society. It was not just the slogan of let’s say two thousand or ten thousand without future and continuation. On the contrary, I believe this is a slogan which has found its way in the society, and the slogan ‘reformists, hardliners, the game is over,’ is being repeated… the new generation, educated people, intellectuals, elites, and educators don’t give a damn about either reformist or the hardliners,” Zibakalam told IRNA.
The U.S. recognized the message of the 2018 uprising and ended the appeasement policy, and now it is time for Europe to adhere to the demand of Iranian people and stop its support of the Iranian regime by ending the appeasement policy.