Teheran - It is January 6, the clock in the library of my house shows 16 in Iran is 18.30. We both laugh at the weird time zone, it's two and a half hours of difference. I ask him why half an hour, "Iranians love to stand out," he replies smiling. It was morning when I received the message from Raffaele Mauriello accepting the interview request. Mauriello who likes to call himself "proudly Avellino", is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages of the Allameh Tabataba'i University of Tehran, also a professor at the Faculty of Islamic Theology and Knowledge and the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. The only foreigner in the chair at the University of Tehran is therefore an Italian. He married a shutter, from which he had a daughter, Lavinia, an Italian citizen because who is born in Iran takes the citizenship of his father. He translated the Iranian civil code from Persian. He lives in Iran, although he often returns to Europe to lecture or present books. In particular, he spends long periods in Italy during the summer, to teach the Master of Geopolitics and Global Security at the Sapienza University of Rome. Mauriello is considered one of the greatest scholars in the Islamic world and one of the greatest Western connoisseurs of Shiism, the main minority branch of Islam.
Raffaele Mauriello also knows the American reality well. The American government in 1980 offered children of earthquake victims from Irpinia who had relatives in the USA the opportunity to study in America. His family took advantage of it and little Raffaele attended elementary school in New Jersey. Then Italy, high school, the first two years of science and then the three years of classical and then in Rome, at La Sapienza to study oriental languages and civilizations, where he learned Arabic and then Persian. His studies led him first to travel and then to live in the Middle East, a reality he loves and knows very well.
Professor, after the attack on the Twin Towers, he feared that his professional freedom could suffer consequences
"Look, I tell you that I was at my home in Avellino that September 11 glued to the television. I knew the Twin Towers and what they represented for an entire generation of Americans, having done elementary school in New Jersey myself, whose capital then was New York. Apart from the great displeasure, I thought that what was happening would bring me more work, for my knowledge of the Arabic and Persian languages ".
Today, as then, tensions between the United States and the Middle East are returning strongly, how are you westerners experiencing Tehran what is happening in the last few days?
"We make it clear that the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at the hands of the Americans is a serious act of violation of international law, against which neither the UN nor Europe have pronounced. If a Muslim country had preordained and carried out the elimination of a western military official, the American and European media would have spoken of a terrorist act for days and days. This above all explains well the disparity of reaction we are witnessing. The seriousness of the incident is unheard of, the consequences indeterminable, starting with the motive that has no strategic justification except in an act of pure arrogance by Donald Trump ".
The story brings to the surface old bitterness, issues that seemed outdated as the "hostage crisis", in the time of the Iranian revolution, when 52 US Embassy members were kidnapped on November 4, 1979, released 15 months later. It is really true that we Westerners now travel with their heads turned to the past, that we have lost the fascination for tomorrow
"Jimmy Carter following the diplomatic crisis due to the facts he reports lost the election campaign for the second term, probably this detail eludes Donald Trump. I say this because it has been theorized that the tension against Iran serves the current American president to compact the consensus and obtain a comfortable re-election. The reference to the 1979 affair is clear, when President Trump threatens to hit 52 military, civilian and cultural targets, it is clear that time stopped for him 40 years ago. The problem is that he does not even learn from it, because the issue of the embassy weighed negatively on American public opinion of those times, highlighting the weakness of US diplomacy and in the end it was the President who paid the consequences. History could repeat itself. Sometimes it happens".
Iran has been determined by the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The agreements for the reduction of nuclear power gave us hope that the geopolitical tension of the Middle East area could decrease after this heavy twenty-year period of wars and terrorism. What consequences can be had now after the murder of Soleimani?
"It is fair to say that Iran helped defeat the Islamic State. The military actions of the Revolutionary Guards commanded by Qasem Soleimani have been crucial in Iraq as in Syria, where they were present as a result of agreements with local governments. The consequences will now be incalculable. Soleimani had been called to calm the situation in the Middle East, he was in Baghdad for this diplomatic reason not to plan attacks on the Americans. It must also be borne in mind that Iran is twenty times Iraq and Afghanistan, has weapons, culture, is a great country. We need to think about concrete facts. NATO, which is the largest military organization that has ever had humanity, intervened militarily in Afghanistan after the Twin Towers, but to say that the West won the war in Afghanistan seems to me somewhat exaggerated, for what it is today the Afghan situation and what is imagined will happen in the future when coalition forces go away. Similarly we can say about Iraq. In these hours, the Iraqi parliament has voted to expel US forces from the country. Now, if the goal of the war against Iraq was Saddam Hussein it can be said that it has been achieved, but otherwise, to say that the war in Iraq was won seems to me equally risky, don't you think? ".
So you claim that Afghanistan and Iraq are theaters of defeat for Westerners?
"The facts speak."
There are hypotheses of oil interests behind the killing of Soleimani, the discovery of a new 53 billion barrel deposit would stimulate appetites
"Iran is the first country in the world for gas resources and is the fourth for oil resources. Together the two resources make Iran the most important country in the world. It is obvious that this can create appetites. But Iran is also a very young country, with a very high average education, because here education is guaranteed by the state up to the PhD. There are 4.5 million university students, a very high level of education. In the West there is a bad talk about the Iranian reality which is very different from the one imagined. "
A country so rich in mineral resources, socially educated, yet not fully developed. What determines this dyscrasia?
"Forty years of American sanctions. It is this and nothing else that determines what you call dyscrasia. Do you think that until last year Alitalia had a direct flight from Rome to Tehran that was very crowded, as well as very comfortable for us Italians and Europeans. A flight that left four times a week with planes always full of citizens from all over the world, which made Rome a hub for the entire Middle East. Good, indeed bad, because the Americans wanted Alitalia to suspend this route. In place of which they have granted a direct flight from Rome to Washington, which is never as full as that for Tehran. You see, when the Americans want, I can do everything in their sphere of interference. "
What air is blowing in Tehran these days, is there fear? What is to be expected?
“No fear, really not. There is anger and sadness. Tehran is a megalopolis of 12 million inhabitants. The masses poured into the streets form a literally oceanic crowd. Not only in the capital but also in Ahvaz, in Mashhad, participation is incredible. Mind you there is no mention of manipulation of the regime because such is the participation that it would be impossible for anyone to organize a public demonstration of this size. Iran will react directly, will not declare war, but the general's death will be avenged. It is a country that has the strength and the means to consume revenge by hitting American military targets and it will, that's for sure. As a result, the United States will feel entitled to follow up on the escalation and therefore anything could happen. Beyond the obvious repercussions on the price of oil, in these hours I have had the opportunity to deal with many European ambassadors and officials and they are all very worried about the consequences ".
How is our country in this context?
"Italy with Germany is one of Iran's main European partners. This should lead us to reflect. Furthermore, there is reason to believe that Iran, in recent years alone, has welcomed over two million Afghans to which as many Iraqis and Syrians should be added. They have been accepted and entered into the system. Unlike Turkey, where refugees are used as a threat weapon against Europe starting from our Italy. What would happen if Iran started doing what Turkey has been doing for years? This is just one of the reasons why we, or Europe, should be the first to challenge the Trump administration's policy. "
This does not happen, in our collective imagination the Muslims are dangerous invaders from whom nothing good comes, even if Italy then went through this time free from direct attacks
“Bad information makes a distorted and wrong image of Muslims. You speak of twenty years of wars and terrorism. Look, the attacks in Europe, I think of the Bataclan or the 2005 London bombing, belong to actions carried out by second and third generation European Muslims. A major problem such as the integration of these young Europeans is confused with the geopolitical tensions of the Muslim world. In Italy it was different because the migratory flow of Muslims started later than in other European countries, this meant less attendance by masses of second and third generation young people. Then it must be added that the Italians do what our governments do not do, I speak of integration. The Italian is a people of culturally open people, who support cultural integration processes as an anthropological fact. Despite the scarcity or adversity of policies in this sense ".
Professor, you married a Persian woman, have a daughter and live in Tehran. What is it like to live in Iran?
“I chose to study first and then to live in the Middle East. Living in Tehran is fascinating, as I said is a megalopolis with 12 million inhabitants. There are many cultural initiatives, there are painting exhibitions, theatrical and cultural initiatives continuously. And then the catering, the food. Here the restaurants are always open. Do you think I love to go to the premises of an Iranian boy who studied architecture in Italy. Thanks to the stay in our country he was able to know and appreciate Italian cuisine, some culinary secrets. Today this guy has an Italian cuisine restaurant, and makes a pizza of fear. Driving the car is another exciting experience. It went well for me because being an expert in Neapolitan driving I was already used to keeping a certain style. Do you think that here in Tehran in traffic they see all the colors and sometimes I think that Iran speaks of the regime but never that there was a traffic policeman around, that I know a policeman who made a fine. Never!".