Iran War — A deeper clash: Chuck Stephens

As the world grows more uncertain, clarity matters more than ever. BNC#8 brings together some of the smartest and most experienced minds to help you cut through the noise and navigate the turbulence with greater confidence. Tickets are selling out fast, with only 40 left. Don’t waste time, book your place at BNC#8 by clicking here or on the image below..Key topics:Shift from ideology wars to rules-based vs national hegemonyCRINK alliance, Iran’s decline, and Middle East realignmentSouth Africa’s foreign policy, ICC case, and BEE critique.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Chuck Stephens*.Gone are the days when the protagonists were Capitalism and Communism. That narrative is not at the heart of current events in 2026.Neither is it a clash between Christianity and Islam. They have clashedbefore, for example in the Crusades.Have we forgotten that one million European white people were abductedby Ottoman raids, which occurred as far away as Ireland and Iceland? Christians were captured, kidnapped and taken by sea to Algiers. At theslave market there, they were sold into slavery in the Middle East andAsia. Of course this was dwarfed by the horrible Atlantic Slave Trade,but Muslims were into slaving in a big way too.In a previous article published in BizNews, I mentioned the “ReconquistaCrista” that happened in the Iberian Peninsula. This triggered aright-of-reply article in which I was roasted for sounding anti-Muslimand intolerant.But the world is experiencing a new clash, between the so-called“rules-based order” and the new Vision of national hegemony at home. This could mean “America First” on one continent or “Make Russia GreatAgain” on another..Read more:.South Africa left out as Middle East peace takes centre stage: Kenneth Mokgatlhe.The name BRICS has become familiar as the acronym LGBTQ+. In roughlythe same time-frame. A period of excessive permissiveness which wouldmake the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah blush. Now we have CRINK –China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. The new “evil axis”.Think of the recent turn-over in Venezuela. Or the current strikes onIran. Or the slow-mo collapse of Cuba.There is a new playbook being run by conservatives who are challengingthe “rules-based order” of the past 50 years. In America, theRepublicans have rejected the “controlled demolition” of their ownmanifest destiny, which began under President Jimmy Carter. Nor arethey satisfied with the “hands-off” approach of free-wheeling “Neocons”championed by President Ronald Reagan. These are sometimes called the“Free-cons” who wanted industry to move off-shore to any place thatlabour was cheaper. Free-market thinking. Enter the “Natcons” -Republicans who don’t mind using state power to intervene. They want tore-shore industry to the USA and soundly reject the notion that Americais in decline. They are on a roll.My purpose in writing – as the bombs are falling on Iran – is to suggestthat the Abraham Accords are likely to make a comeback, now that theruse of Muslim solidarity has been exposed. Iran became very powerful,largely due to its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. But Iranis being de-fanged. This will cause the Middle East to adopt a newpath, accepting the inevitability of the State of Israel. The emphasiswill shift from radical Islamic terrorism to “business unusual”. MostIranians (in Iran an in the diaspora) want a free and democratic Iran. They are fed up with the mullahs and with Iran’s bullying of the region.The knock-on effect of crippling Iran’s ambitions will be felt in CRINK. For one thing, oils supply to China becomes precarious, only a shortwhile after the USA imposed its new “Donroe Docrine” on Venezuela – withthe biggest oil reserves anywhere. This is causing Cuba to sink slowly,while America is busy de-fanging Iran.What about South Africa?Its litigation at the International Criminal Court against Israel wasfunded by Iran. This was done to gain Iran’s favour – and funding – forthe ANC as a party. It was broken, and it needed some petrodollars. Itwas a bad move that South Africa will come to regret.Eventually in the new dispensation, after Venezuela, Iran and Cuba areall sorted out, South Africa’s number will come up.Worst of all is the ANC’s mantra of affirmative action. They call itBBEEE. That is local dialect for DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion)which has been out-lawed in the USA by the Maga Movement. It isanathema, and worse yet, BEE favours the majority – not a minority. This was always rather disingenuous.Whether Afrikaners are really victims of genocide is controversial, butSouth Africa is seen as a corrupt, lawless, dangerous place that getsmore anti-white as time goes on. It is seen in a dim light and its dayof comeuppance will come.We cannot forget that while the repressive Iranian regime slaughteredits own citizens in cold blood for protesting, South Africa was silent. Yet when Immigration Control Enforcement in the USA goes about dutiesthat are normal in any country, South African howls. As if South Africanever rounded up “makwerekwere” to deport to Mozambique, Zimbabwe,Nigeria or Somalia. This happens in every country. But deportingForeigners are one thing. Murdering 32 000 of your own citizens is quiteanother.Remember that hard that appeared writing on the wall: “Mene, mene, tekeluparsin”. You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.Thabo Mbeki and his health minister Dr Frankenmanto were upended becauseof their arrogance over the roll-out of ARVs.The arrogance of this government alleging genocide against Israel whenit may be guilty of “cultural genocide” against the Afrikaners is worsethan incongruous..*Chuck Stephens: Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership

Iran War — A deeper clash: Chuck Stephens

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