Against the backdrop of Iran’s International Qods Day, marked this year on March 13,[1] Lebanese journalist Khairallah Khairallah published an article focusing on Iran’s Palestine policy over the years and the consequences of this policy. Writing in the London-based Emirati daily Al-Arab, Khairallah argued that, since its establishment, Iran’s Islamic Revolution regime has exploited the Palestinian issue to advance its political and regional goals. But for all its bombastic slogans, this regime has not helped the Palestinians at all; on the contrary, it has caused them and their national cause immense harm by leading them to miss every opportunity to resolve their problem. Iran, Khairallah added, thought it would benefit from the war that broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack. Instead, this war only exposed the limits of Iran’s own power, revealed the weakness of its allies, and damaged its regional standing.
Cartoon: The conflagration ignited by Iran all over the region is starting to burn it (Independentarabia.com, March 15, 2026)
The following are translated excerpts from Khairallah’s article:[2]
“The Iranian authorities insisted on marking Qods Day as usual this year, on the last Friday of the month of Ramadan, seeking to emphasize that [their political] exploitation of Jerusalem, Palestine, and the Palestinians is an integral part of Iran’s expansionist agenda that began with the declaration of the Islamic Republic… in 1979. Given the situation to which the holy city [of Jerusalem] has deteriorated, we find that Qods Day presents a true picture of Iran’s failure to offer the Palestinians anything besides bombastic slogans. The [Islamic] Republic [of Iran] waved slogans while Israel took serious action to take control of the city and turn it into its capital.
“Tehran still refuses to acknowledge that, whatever the outcome of the American-Israeli military campaign that began with the assassination of [Iran’s] Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic, created by Khomeini in his own image, will not be able to maintain its role as a regional player. This is due primarily to the Gaza war and its consequences. This war exposed [the true face of] Iran, and especially the end of its undeclared and unholy alliance with Israel, [aimed at] destroying the Palestinian national project based on the two-state solution. [But], while this alliance may have ended, what still holds true is their shared [interest] in destroying the Palestinian cause – namely, destroying the Palestinian dream of establishing an independent state. This is a historic point of convergence between the Iranian regime and Israel’s [political] right.
“The Gaza war, which began on October 7, 2023, is considered a turning point for the region, particularly in terms of the role played by Iran beyond its borders. The decline in Iran’s regional status stems first of all from the fact that anything based on falsehood is false [itself] – especially when it comes to exploiting the Palestinian cause. In practice, Iran’s use of this cause has done immense harm to it and to the Palestinian people. Suffice it to mention the role Iran played in pushing Hamas and the [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad to carry out suicide attacks against civilians in Israel and Jerusalem [in the 1990s] with the aim of causing a shift to the far right within Israeli society…
“We cannot ignore the fact that Iran now finds itself forced to enter a war on its own territory for the first time since 1988, when the Iran–Iraq war ended. The Islamic Republic never imagined that it would face such a war [again], [a war] that comes as a natural consequence of the developments following the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza. [In fact,] the Islamic Republic believed it would be the primary beneficiary of the Gaza war, which began with Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Flood attack on the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. Tehran assumed it would be able expand or contain this war [as it pleased], given the large number of Israelis and Jews murdered during the Al-Aqsa Flood [attack] and the taking of dozens of hostages. It did not anticipate the Israeli response, nor the depth of the relationship between the U.S. and the Jewish state.
“Iran also misjudged the extent of Hizbullah’s military weakness and the consequences of its decision to open a front [against Israel] from South Lebanon. Nor did it properly understand the fragility of the Alawite regime structure in Syria and the implications of the removal of the Israeli backing from that regime… [Then] Iran lost Hizbullah, when Israel eliminated its leadership, including its secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah. Now it has had to assume direct responsibility for this organization and push it to reopen the southern Lebanon front.
“The war that Iran is currently waging will have entirely different consequences from all its previous wars. The Gaza war exposed the truth about the Iranian regime. And what this war failed to reveal has been exposed by the [current] American-Israeli military campaign, which has cemented the decline of the Islamic Republic’s role beyond its borders, including in Palestine.
“Iran caused the Palestinians to miss every opportunity they had since the early 1990s. Moreover, it placed them in direct confrontation with the Israeli expansionist agenda, after they had for years been the victims of Iran’s own expansionist project – particularly in the period following the Oslo [Accords], with all their advantages and disadvantages.”
[1] Established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution regime, International Qods (Jerusalem) Day is marked on the last Friday of Ramadan and is dedicated to expressing the anti-Israel positions of the Iranian regime and calling for the destruction of Israel. A main manifestation of this are the mass Qods Day marches across Iran, during which the marchers chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” and senior regime officials give speeches calling for Israel’s destruction.
[2] Al-Arab (UAE), March 18, 2026.
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Lebanese Journalist: It Is The Iranian Regime's Destructive Policy On Palestine That Has Harmed Iran's Regional Standing – MEMRI
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