In this EISMENA interview, Lyna and Maxime speak with Clément Therme about his book Iran-Israël : la guerre idéologique de 1979 à nos jours, published by Tallandier.
Therme analyzes the Iran-Israel conflict beyond the current military escalation, placing it within a longer historical trajectory that began with the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He discusses the role of the United States in this trilateral relationship, the internal dynamics of Iranian society, the Strait of Hormuz, the weakening and resilience of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the role of militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, and the strategic calculations of Gulf states caught between Iran, Israel, and the United States. He also explains why the conflict cannot be understood only through recent events, but must be read through decades of ideological confrontation, shadow war, regional proxy dynamics, and competing projects of regime change.
Chapters
00:00 — Introduction: Clément Therme and the Iran-Israel ideological war
01:44 — Why publish this book now?
03:48 — Iran’s internal crisis and the question of regime survival
08:17 — How the nuclear issue shapes Western perceptions of Iran
10:02 — The Strait of Hormuz as Iran’s strategic lever
14:58 — Iran’s regional influence and the weakening of the “Axis of Resistance”
20:31 — Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the fragmentation of Iran’s regional network
24:37 — Militias, ideology, and economic interests in Iraq
31:30 — Gulf states between Iran, Israel, and the collapse of international order
36:23 — The Abraham Accords and the unresolved Palestinian question
39:03 — Israel and Iran’s methodical escalation
41:48 — Two historical readings of the Iran-Israel conflict
44:28 — Saddam Hussein’s fall, Iran’s land corridor, and the nuclear issue
46:11 — Why the conflict may persist as long as the Islamic Republic exists
46:45 — Closing remarks: why long-term history matters