Iran News: Former French Intelligence Chief Yves Bonnet Warns Against Alliance with Iran’s “Fanatical Theocracy”
AI-generated image showing the French and Iranian regime flags flying in opposing directions, symbolizing conflicting winds and tensions
Written by
Shamsi Saadati
In a powerful op-ed published in Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD), Yves Bonnet, former head of France’s domestic intelligence agency (DST), warned that the Iranian regime has transformed from a historical ally of France into a theocratic dictatorship that actively threatens French national interests.
Recalling centuries of Franco-Persian cooperation, Bonnet contrasts France’s past diplomatic engagements with Persia—from Louis XIV to Napoleon—with today’s Iran, which he describes as “under the grip of a fanatical religious caste.” According to Bonnet, the 1979 revolution marked a dark turning point, turning Iran into “the base of Shiite messianism in the Middle East” and “the antithesis of all our societal, moral, religious, and political values.”
In stark terms, Bonnet asserts: “Iran has become our enemy,” citing the regime’s “abject hostage-taking” and deep hostility to French interests across the region. He highlights a critical shift in the early 2000s, when elements within French and Iranian intelligence services attempted covert operations against Iranian opposition figures based in France—actions that “trampled on human rights and desecrated sacred principles.” Bonnet credits French judges, lawyers, and principled politicians from both the right and left for stepping in to stop what he calls “state cynicism at its worst.”
Hon.Yves Bonnet: For eliminating their opposition, totalitarian regimes use state terrorism under diplomatic cover, with the protection of embassies and by using their facilities.#ExpelIranDiplomatTerrorists #FreeIran #IStandWithMaryamRajavi @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/Vgy6qKcwG7
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 4, 2019
Twenty years later, Bonnet notes, the Iranian regime is “completely isolated internally and externally,” while the organized opposition has only grown stronger. But he warns of the regime’s renewed campaign of “hostage blackmail and media disinformation” aimed at silencing dissidents abroad.
He singles out Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), calling her “the first among” Iranian democrats he has known for four decades. “Let us not fall into the trap of a false alliance,” Bonnet cautions, urging France to stand firmly with the Iranian Resistance.
His final words serve as both warning and hope: “Long live democratic Iran. Our Iran.”