Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, warned Sunday that Iran’s hostility toward America is rooted in religious extremism, not politics or territory, calling the conflict “a religious war against non-Muslims.”
Klein said on Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda” that following U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites ordered by President Donald Trump, America must recognize Iran’s aggression as part of a broader religious war — not a territorial or economic dispute.
“First of all, I must commend Trump. I believe he will go down in history as a Churchillian peacemaker for what he’s done,” he said.
“This is not only Israel’s war; this is America’s war and the world’s war,” Klein said. “In the rallies every week, led by the Iranian mullahs, they scream, ‘Death to America! America is the Great Satan.’ Only then [do] they say, ‘Death to Israel!'”
Klein cited decades of Iranian violence against America, pointing to events from the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran to more recent slaughter.
“Iran has terrorized and been at war with America since they took over the U.S. Embassy in 1979,” he said. “They killed 241 Marines in Lebanon. They killed Americans in the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole. They killed Americans when they attacked the U.S. Embassy in Africa. They killed Americans and thousands in the Iraq and Afghanistan war.
“People don’t even realize — they were deeply involved in funding and training the terrorists who did 9/11,” Klein said. “They worked with al-Qaida.”
Klein warned that Iran is developing weapons that pose a threat to the U.S. homeland.
“Iran has ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach America. Why do they have to develop missiles to reach America if their problem is with Israel?” he asked. “Because they want to destroy the major non-Muslim country in the world.
“If Israel didn’t exist, America would have to hit Iran anyway. People have to understand this.”
Summarizing his position, Klein underscored that the roots of Iran’s actions are ideological and theological.
“It’s not about land. It’s not about economics. It’s not about the Palestinians. This is a religious war against non-Muslims,” he said. “The U.S. is the most important non-Muslim country.”
According to Klein, Iranian religious leaders believe that provoking global chaos will hasten the arrival of the Mahdi, a messianic figure in Islamic theology.
“They believe — these religious Muslims — that they need to cause chaos and destroy the U.S. and Israel, that this will bring the Muslim Messiah, the Mahdi,” Klein said. “Once that happens, they will create an Islamic caliphate where the world is run by Islam.”
He concluded, “People have to understand these sorts of things. Too few people realize it.”
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