By Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth Berney, Esq.
(July 29, 2026 / USA Today) The Islamic Republic of Iran was born through deception. Nearly five decades later, it faces its greatest challenge because an American president has concluded that the regime’s deception can no longer be tolerated. Documents declassified in 2016 show that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini secured power by making promises to President Jimmy Carter that he never intended to keep. Today, President Donald Trump is responding to the same pattern of duplicity with a fundamentally different approach.
Declassified diplomatic cables and government records from January 1979, including a first-person message from Khomeini, document how Carter was persuaded to help clear Khomeini’s path back to Iran. Although the records were declassified in 2016, they received little public attention.
At the time, Khomeini understood that the greatest obstacle to his rise was Iran’s military, which remained loyal to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and was prepared to prevent his return from exile. Khomeini also knew the United States could work with the Iranian military to stop his takeover.
Through intermediaries in Paris, where he spent the final year of his 15-year exile, Khomeini offered Carter what amounted to a bargain. If the United States encouraged Iran’s military to stand down and its constitutional government to step aside, Khomeini promised stability, a peaceful transition and gradual constitutional change. He assured Washington that Iran would remain friendly to America, maintain Western investment, continue selling oil, avoid Soviet influence, protect Iran’s Jews, refrain from exporting revolution and pursue a policy of non-interference in other nations.
His spokesman, Ebrahim Yazdi, even emphasized that Iran preferred closer relations with America than with the Soviet Union because, “You are Christians and believe in God and they don’t.”
Khomeini also hinted at the consequences if his return were blocked, warning that violence could be directed at Americans in Iran if the military acted against him.
The Carter administration accepted these assurances. Carter urged the Shah to leave Iran, while U.S. Air Force General Robert Huyser persuaded Iran’s military leadership not to intervene and to abandon plans for a coup. The result was a smoother path for Khomeini’s return and eventual seizure of power.
Iran’s promises never came to fruition
The promises unraveled almost immediately.
Within two weeks of returning to Iran on Feb. 1, 1979, Khomeini ordered the summary execution of four senior Iranian generals despite the military’s concessions. He then eliminated Marxist allies who had helped bring him to power and sidelined moderates as insufficiently revolutionary and too sympathetic to the United States.
On April 1, Khomeini publicly called for the execution of the Shah’s supporters without trial, declaring there was “no reason why a criminal should be tried.” He demanded that every aspect of Iranian society be reshaped according to Islamic principles, called for eliminating “all remnants of westernization” and urged Islamic nations to unite against Western influence.
He soon abandoned any pretense of limiting his ambitions to Iran. Khomeini declared, “We shall export our revolution to the whole world.” Iran’s new constitution established the continuation of the Islamic Revolution at home and abroad as a central mission, assigning both the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsibility for advancing Islamic sovereignty worldwide
The consequences extended well beyond Iran. Anti-American violence intensified across the region, including attacks in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Turkey and Calcutta.
Khomeini’s followers first attempted to seize the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in February 1979. On November 4, encouraged by Khomeini’s repeated claims that the embassy was “a nest of spies,” militants stormed the compound, taking 66 Americans hostage. The IRGC helped plan and support the operation. Khomeini threatened to execute the hostages unless the Shah was surrendered and used the crisis to consolidate his grip on power.
His promises to protect Iran’s Jewish community proved equally false. Between 1979 and 1981, prominent Jewish leaders including Habib Elghanian, Ebrahim Berookhim, Gorgi Lavi, Simon Farzami, Albert Danielpour, Youssef Yadegar, Farajollah Hakimi, Isaac Lahijani and Mansour Ghedooshim were tortured and executed on fabricated charges such as “friendship with the enemies of God.” Many other Jews were imprisoned, kidnapped, ransomed or tortured. Most of Iran’s 120,000-member Jewish community ultimately fled, abandoning more than $61 billion in assets in today’s dollars.
The lesson is clear. The Islamic Republic was built on assurances that were systematically broken. Khomeini promised moderation, stability, peaceful governance, friendship with America, regional restraint and protection for minorities. Instead, he delivered dictatorship, executions, hostage-taking, terrorism and regional aggression.
America is choosing a different path in 2026
Today, the United States is confronting that history differently. Speaking after repeated Iranian violations of agreements, Trump has described Iran’s rulers as “liars” and “cheats” who cannot be trusted to honor commitments or responsibly possess nuclear weapons. His administration has responded by striking Iranian regime targets and blockading Iranian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
History shows how the Iranian terror regime came to power: through deception that an American president accepted. Whether the regime survives may now depend on a different American president’s determination that such deception will no longer be rewarded.
Morton Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America, or ZOA. Elizabeth Berney, Esq. is ZOA’s Director of Research and Special Projects
This op-ed was originally published by USA Today and can be viewed here.