Stripped of its main allies in its ‘axis of resistance,’ the theocratic Iranian regime is teetering on the verge of extinction. The mullahs know that one more push from America or Israel could finish them off. They are at their weakest point ever, with the collapse of their key ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria and the decapitation of their proxy affiliates Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Ninety-five million impoverished Iranians, tired and angry after almost five decades of repression and tyranny, are ready to explode. The renewal of President Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions campaign could bring down the final curtain.
Desperate to compensate for the Iranian regime’s newfound vulnerability, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old fundamentalist Supreme Leader,has begun to accelerate his nuclear program, causing consternation and panic in the West. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, the UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, said: Iran is "pressing the gas pedal" on its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade purity. Last month, Grossi told the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) that Iran boasted it would “dramatically” accelerate enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, closer to the roughly 90 percent purity required for weapons production. He said Iran is now producing more than 30 kilograms of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent and that it already had about 200 kg of uranium enriched up to 60 percent. Grossi said it was “absolutely indispensable” for President Trump to enter into negotiations with the mullahs’ regime.
The original nuclear deal with Iran was struck by President Obama in 2015. Called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it involved the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia and China + Germany, collectively known as the P5+1. In exchange for lifting sanctions, the deal allowed IAEA inspectors to monitor Iranian nuclear activity, limiting enrichment and curtailing weapons development. The deal was deeply flawed, with the Iranians prohibiting nuclear inspectors from accessing any military compounds, where, in fact, most of the clandestine nuclear activity was taking place. President Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018, describing it as the worst deal in U.S. history. He then introduced a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign of intensified sanctions, which were subsequently relaxed when President Biden entered the White House.
With the Iranian economy in free fall, the mullahs are desperately seeking a renewed deal with the West where sanctions could again be lifted in exchange for nuclear concessions. However, President Trump and his more hawkish advisors know that the mullahs cheated on the terms of the JCPOA and continued to work towards the production of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missile delivery systems, while assuring the West that they were strictly adhering to the rules. Indeed, last week the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi let the cat out of the bag when he described Rafael Grossi’s call for his country to renounce nuclear weapons, as “audacious.” In a post on X, Araghchi wrote: “It is audacious to preach that Iranians must once and for all make it clear that they will renounce to have nuclear weapons.”
It has now emerged that on January 20, Britain, France and Germany held talks with Iran over their nuclear program, following a series of secret meetings that took place last November. In December, the three European capitals expressed “extreme concern” over Iran’s enrichment capacity. Paris said the uranium enrichment was nearing the “point of no return.” The UK, France and Germany are the leading appeasers of the Iranian regime, forever futilely seeking diplomatic solutions with illusory ‘reformist’ factions in Tehran. Their latest target is the new Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, who some ill-informed Western political leaders regard as a ‘moderate’. Pezeshkian is a puppet president, blindly following orders from Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. He is also far from ‘moderate,’ having presided over at least 774 executions since he took office last August.
While Trump claimed he’d be a peacemaker in his inaugural address, he may still support an Israeli strike by providing the necessary military backing, with the U.S. taking on an air defense role in the event of Iranian retaliation, similar to its response during Iran’s two attacks on Israel in 2024. Experts believe the likelihood of direct U.S. or Israeli military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities is now higher than ever, while prospects for a diplomatic solution remain slim. When questioned about the issue since his re-election, Trump has refused to rule out military action on Iran. His team is also preparing to reinstate the maximum-pressure sanctions campaign.
But, undeterred, Western appeasers are scrambling to find a negotiated solution that could avoid military confrontation. Any deal brokered by Trump is bound to include not only a reversal of key aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, but also an end to its support for regional militias like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, the Iraqi popular mobilization forces (PMF), and even restrictions on its ballistic missile program – concessions that are unlikely to be palatable for Tehran. There are suspicions that signals from Tehran that it is willing to engage in talks is simply a case of the mullahs’ trying frantically to ‘buy time,’ a strategy they have used successfully in the past.
Donald Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are known as hardliners on Iran. During his vetting for the role in Congress on January 15, Rubio said: “A nuclear-capable Iran, with the resources and military capabilities to continue its sponsorship of terrorism to destabilize the region, cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.” Warning that the Iranian regime must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, Waltz told an interviewer: “We should believe [Iran’s so-called ‘supreme leader,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] who intends to wipe Israel off the face of the earth if they have nukes.”
EU and UK appeasers should take careful note of what President Trump and his key advisors are saying. There is no point in trying to negotiate any sort of deal with the mullahs. We’ve tried that before, and it never works. It is time we backed the Iranian people and their courageous Resistance Units. It is their moral right to overthrow this evil regime.
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