Iran plays a central role in bringing together Palestinian nationalists, Islamists, Marxists, and European revolutionary groups. The objective, according to a new book, is to manipulate public opinion in the West.
“The French have always been fascinated by revolution, and Ayatollah Khomeini was seductively presented as a revolutionary figure,” says French author Jean-Marie Montali.
In early July, Montali was interviewed by the Jerusalem Post about his new book, which outlines Iran’s spy and influencer networks in France and shows how the West has become a victim of Tehran’s manipulation. His co-author, Emmanuel Razavi — specialist on Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood — published the book under the title Tehran’s Octopus.
The starting point, the authors argue, is the Islamic Republic’s reach into France and the wider world. A telling symbol of this relationship is the place Khomeini chose during his 1978 exile: Neauphle-le-Château, a small town in the Yvelines region outside Paris.
The book recounts how then–French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing insisted that Khomeini had “come to France under ordinary circumstances and settled not as a political refugee but as a foreign resident.”
The authors describe this as a betrayal — not only of the Shah’s remaining supporters but of millions of Iranians — and argue that the betrayal has continued throughout the history of the regime.
When Israel struck Iranian targets on June 13, Western far-left activists joined Islamist demonstrators, chanting their support for Tehran. This improbable alliance of opposing movements, Montali argues, was no accident.
“In 1979, Yasser Arafat was the first prominent leader to visit Khomeini and together they declared ‘The road to Jerusalem goes through Tehran,’” Montali told the Jerusalem Post. “That statement connected the far left with Islamist movements.”
He continued: “In the Lebanese training camps in the Beqaa Valley, you found Palestinian nationalists, Islamists, Marxists, and European radicals all together. That continuity stretches right up to today — including the events of October 7.”
Many commentators, he added, say October 7 was purely a Hamas operation. “In reality, it was a coordinated, Iran-led action that involved other Palestinian factions — an alliance of Marxism, nationalism, and Islamism.”
Montali argues that France has been particularly vulnerable to anti-Israel ideology because of its deep fascination for revolutionary movements. By the late 1970s, the far left had lost its icons: Mao, Castro, and Guevara had all proven themselves failures.
“Then suddenly a new ‘Guevara’ appeared — but in Tehran, wearing a turban. And this man had been living in exile in France for 112 days. He looked like a wise old man, charismatic and authoritative. It was powerfully seductive,” Montali recalled. “One might have thought France, so proud of its secularism, would be immune. But it wasn’t.”
He notes that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic of Iran have long been intertwined. Even before the 1979 revolution, Khomeini maintained close ties with the Brotherhood and translated the writings of its thinkers.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and al-Qaeda, the book argues, all trace their roots back to the 1920s, when Egypt’s Hassan al-Banna and Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, worked together on a violently antisemitic agenda, promoted through murder and terror.
By the late 1930s, they had secured ideological and financial backing from Nazi Germany. After the Second World War, German Nazis were brought to Egypt to assist them. It was al-Husseini who first approached Nazi Germany — meeting with Hitler personally on November 28, 1941.
In May of this year (2025), a French government report singled out Sweden as a hub of Brotherhood activity in Europe. According to Le Monde, the report notes that “Sweden is home to an active branch of the movement,” facilitated by the country’s “broad tolerance of multicultural policies and its close ties with local political parties, particularly the Swedish Social Democratic Party.”
European counterintelligence officials told the authors that Iran actively works to infiltrate and influence immigrant communities, who then integrate into French society while continuing to operate under Tehran’s guidance.
Montali says the events of October 7, 2023, marked a watershed moment in how terrorism is discussed in the West.
“Traditionally, whenever a terrorist attack occurred, we all agreed to condemn it. We called it barbaric. We said it was terrorism. We weren’t afraid to use the word. But this time we saw a surreal reversal: Hamas was suddenly described as a ‘resistance organization,’” he explained.
He noted that when the PLO was founded in 1964, the West Bank was under Jordanian control and Gaza was under Egypt’s. Yet the PLO’s slogan was “From the river to the sea” — a slogan still chanted today by Marxists, nationalists, Islamists, and terrorist groups alike.
“What does it mean?” Montali asked. “It means a region without Jews. In Germany, that would have been called Judenrein — cleansed of Jews. No Jews left.”
One of the book’s key sources is a former insider from Iran’s ruling elite, someone once close to Ayatollah Khamenei.
“I don’t believe the mullahs see France as an enemy,” the source told the authors.
“In public rhetoric, yes, they claim Europe and France are enemies. But in practice, the Islamic Republic has never severed ties with France, unlike with Britain. France has invested billions of dollars in Iran’s automotive and oil industries and has never truly enforced sanctions. France’s large Muslim population views the regime rather positively. Iran’s relationship with France is best described as cooperative rivalry — much like its relationship with Turkey.”
The book also examines the role of Iran’s Quds Force infiltrators, describing how Iranian envoys attend international conferences and, under the guise of neutrality, deliver Tehran’s messages — even as the regime brutally represses its own people at home.
At universities, speakers preach about cultural openness while Iran quietly produces drones and centrifuges and “dreams of a Shiite empire… from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.”
“But executioners, even in white gloves, remain executioners,” the authors write.
“And make no mistake: the Revolutionary Guard’s fearsome Quds Force — soldiers of the strategy of chaos — remains active. It is the iron fist beneath the white gloves.”
