Iran Accuses US-Israel of Exploiting Intra-Muslim Divisions: A Pattern of Proxy Polarisation in Global South
Original framing: “Pezeshkian says US and Israel are trying to pit countries against each other” — Middle East Eye
The headline silences voices like those of Iranian *Basij* veterans who fought in Syria but now criticise the regime’s hypocrisy in promoting unity while supporting Assad’s authoritarianism, or Palestinian civil society groups (e.g., *BDS* activists) who reject both Israeli occupation *and* Iranian state propaganda. Women’s rights advocates in Iran, such as those from the *White Wednesdays* movement, are also absent—many of whom see US-Israel narratives as a distraction from domestic repression. Even within Iran, the *Reformist* faction’s critiques of the government’s foreign policy are ignored, as are the perspectives of ethnic minorities (e.g., Kurds, Baloch) who experience state violence regardless of regional alliances. The framing thus flattens a complex landscape into a binary of 'oppressor vs. oppressed.'
The headline’s framing of Pezeshkian’s statement as a moralistic warning obscures a far more complex and historically repeating dynamic: the systematic exploitation of intra-Muslim divisions by Western powers, enabled by the erasure of Indigenous governance models, marginalised critiques, and cross-cultural alternatives.
The *shura*-based systems of the Islamic Golden Age and the *Ubuntu*-rooted solidarity of African governance offer tangible pathways to resist fragmentation, yet they are systematically excluded from the discourse in favor of a binary of 'oppressor vs. oppressed.' Meanwhile, the *trickster* lens reveals how even anti-imperialist rhetoric can become a tool of control when it silences internal dissent and regional allies. The solution lies not in reactive accusations but in *decolonising security architectures*—through economic sovereignty pacts, Indigenous governance labs, and truth commissions—that dismantle the structural conditions enabling proxy wars. The historical precedent is clear: from the *Non-Aligned Movement* to the *OIC’s* early 20th-century unity efforts, Global South states have repeatedly resisted fragmentation when they prioritise regional autonomy over great-power alignment. The challenge now is to revive these models with the urgency they demand.