The Iranian regime is at its weakest point since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini hijacked the 1979 revolution to seize power. Their Shi’ite axis of resistance in Syria, Gaza, and Lebanon has crumbled with the decapitation of Hamas and Hezbollah and the fall of the brutal Assad regime. Even Vladimir Putin was unable to save their mutual friend and ally – Bashar al-Assad - from overthrow. Now they face the daunting prospect of another four years with Donald Trump in charge in America. He will hold the mullahs to account. He has appointed General Keith Kellogg, former National Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, as his envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Addressing a National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) conference in Paris on Saturday, 11 January, General Kellogg said: “For the United States, a policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy.”He said that for Iran’s 95 million population, “2025 is the year for Hope, Action, and Change”. As a member of President Trump’s incoming White House team, General Kellogg's remarks were an Important Indication of the new administration's policy on Iran.
Several distinguished former prime ministers, ministers, diplomats, and generals had also gathered in Paris to speak in support of a robust policy on Iran, expressing support for the main democratic opposition to the mullahs’ theocratic regime and showing their support for the charismatic and courageous NCRI leadership of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi. The mullahs’ predictable reaction to the Paris conference was absolute hysteria. They even summoned the French ambassador to remonstrate with him for allowing the conference to take place. This is the best possible indication of the success of the conference and the disintegrating weakness of the theocratic regime.
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Many of the speakers in Paris highlighted the failure of decades of appeasement by Western powers. Even now, there is an emerging narrative that the destruction of the regime's proxy groups in the region and Assad’s departure has so weakened the Iranian regime that the West must seize the opportunity to negotiate with the so-called ‘moderate’ president Masoud Pezeshkian to abandon his country’s nuclear ambitions and restore peace and harmony to the Middle East. This would be a fatal mistake. Pezeshkian is not moderate. He is a puppet of the sociopathic Supreme Leader Khamenei and carries out his orders blindly. Since taking office in August 2024, he has presided over the execution of more than 750 people, including dozens of women.
The Iranian president is also a liar. When NBC questioned him last week about the arrest of three people in America accused of plotting to assassinate President Trump on behalf of the Iranian regime, he denied that Iran had ever been involved in terrorist acts. He conveniently forgot to mention the case of Assadollah Assadi, a sitting Iranian diplomat from the regime’s embassy in Vienna, who was arrested for planning the detonation of a bomb at a major Iranian opposition rally in Paris in June 2028. Assadi was sentenced to the maximum term of 20 years imprisonment for terrorism. Pezeshkian also omitted to mention the attempted assassination of the senior Spanish political figure Alejo Vidal Quadras, former vice president of the European Parliament. Professor Vidal Quadras was shot in the head in broad daylight outside his home in Madrid in November 2023. Six people have now been arrested in connection with the attempted assassination. All six have direct links to the Iranian regime.
On 9th January, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also addressed a meeting at the NCRI headquarters in Paris. He painted a bleak picture for the mullahs, stating that the fall of Bashar al-Assad was a precursor for the fall of the theocratic Iranian regime: “Assad hiding in another country, hoping only that he can stay alive, despite the crimes he committed against his own people. The fact that it fell so quickly, that it was such a paper tiger, told the world that the Ayatollah is finished, that his time is complete.” Urging the Resistance Units of the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to persevere, he said: “Keep up the fight. Keep your focus on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The United States and the pressure campaign will return, making the regime even more fragile. You, the Resistance, you are on the right path.”
Mr. Pompeo emphasized that the Resistance Units are not asking for foreign intervention but for recognition of their right to resist. He declared, “This plan does not demand regime change from outside, from the United States or others. It doesn’t ask for boots on the ground or even money from outside. The only demand of the resistance is the recognition of the Iranian people’s plight.” Secretary Pompeo called on the international community to support the Iranian Resistance: “New U.S. policy, as the new administration comes in, needs to create even more space for the Iranian resistance to be vigilant on the ground. The focal point of this policy has to be recognition of the Iranian people’s right to resist and recognition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the single best alternative to the clerics ruling Iran.”
Western appeasers need to listen to Secretary Pompeo and General Kellogg. Appeasers who think that the fundamentalist theocratic regime can be negotiated need to wake up. They need to understand that there is an organized resistance inside the country capable of overthrowing the regime. MEK Resistance Units are burgeoning in towns and cities across Iran. We need to show our support for these brave freedom fighters. They don’t want outside interference or military intervention; they simply want Western powers to acknowledge their right to fight the IRGC and overthrow this despotic regime and to restore freedom, justice, democracy, and an end to repression, misogyny, torture, executions, nuclear threat, terrorism, and warmongering. Western appeasers must realize that there is a credible alternative with a clear roadmap for a democratic transition led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI.
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