Iran's revolution called Arafat "a traitor and a fool" | ARAFAT AND THE AYATOLLAH Part 3 of 4

History Onion · 2:57

The revolution Yasser Arafat helped train turned on him. When Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, Arafat rushed to broker peace — but Ayatollah Khomeini, who wanted to win the war, would not even receive his envoy. Trapped between Tehran and the Gulf monarchies that funded both him and Saddam, Arafat lost favor. And a revolution at war grew instruments it could trust instead: the Revolutionary Guard forged Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a Gaza doctor founded Palestinian Islamic Jihad — religious rivals to Arafat's secular Fatah. When Arafat finally reached for peace with Israel in 1988, the Islamic Republic condemned him — and its president, Ali Khamenei (later Iran's supreme leader), is remembered as branding him "a traitor and a fool." The title is Khamenei's phrase for Arafat, not ours. ▶ Follow for Part 4 — The Inheritance: Hamas, Arafat's last years, and the machine that outlived him. Some scenes are cinematic reconstructions of documented events. All quotes, dates, and sources are historically verified. #shorts #history #Arafat #Iran #MiddleEast #Khomeini #Palestine #PLO