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Newsweek
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
The Iranian People Remain Best Hope for Regime Change
Forty-six years after Iran's 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime's true Achilles' heel remains not foreign pressure or external war, but the growing power of its own people and their organized resistance. The mullahs' rulers—unelected and unaccountable—face a citizenry that is increasingly emboldened and defiant. With every new wave of protest, every strike, and every act of civil disobedience, the regime's response is not reform, but repression. In recent years, the world has witnessed a dramatic upsurge in state violence. The regime executed 975 people last year—making Iran the world's top per capita executioner. Many of these victims are political prisoners, dissidents, or members of marginalized communities. In 2022, a new nationwide uprising erupted in response to the murder of Mahsa Amini. Since then, tens of thousands have been arrested and tortured, and hundreds have been murdered, executed, or disappeared. Truck drivers, teachers, retirees, farmers, and students have all taken to the streets. The regime answers not with dialogue, but with bullets, gallows, and censorship. Its so-called "public executions" are a desperate attempt to project strength and instill fear. But, as history shows, such spectacles only reveal how tenuous the regime's hold on power truly is. Perhaps nothing exposes the regime's panic more than its own chilling rhetoric. On July 7, the state-run Fars News Agency went so far as to openly call for a "repeat" of the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners—most of them members of the principal Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). It described that atrocity as one of the Islamic Republic's most "brilliant records in the fight against terrorism" and declared, "today is the time to repeat this successful historical experience." No fewer than 30,000 political prisoners were executed and buried in unmarked mass graves, in what the United Nations has condemned as a crime against humanity and a genocide. Such a brazen call for mass murder is not a show of strength, but a confession of fear. The regime's leaders, haunted by the growing influence of the MEK-affiliated Resistance Units' reach inside Iran, now see terror and bloodshed as their only means of holding back the tide of change. Their paranoia is no longer hidden; it is broadcast from the headlines of state media. TEHRAN, IRAN - JUNE 28, 2025: People gather during a state funeral service in Enqelab Square, for military commanders and others killed in the recent war with Israel on June 28, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. TEHRAN, IRAN - JUNE 28, 2025: People gather during a state funeral service in Enqelab Square, for military commanders and others killed in the recent war with Israel on June 28, 2025 in Tehran, this brutality, Iran's spirit of resistance is unbroken. Truck drivers—threatened with revoked licenses, loss of livelihood, and prosecution—stand undeterred, demanding the release of arrested colleagues. Teachers and retirees stage coordinated strikes. Even in the face of mass arrests and death sentences, Resistance Units continue to operate in every corner of the country. The regime's feverish efforts to stamp out dissent are matched only by the courage and persistence of ordinary Iranians. Decades of appeasement of the Iranian regime have unequivocally failed. The hope that the regime would moderate itself is a dangerous illusion—a leopard never changes its spots. Continued outreach only extends the life of a theocracy fundamentally opposed to democratic values. The United States, and the broader West, must not throw a lifeline to this regime at its weakest point. Instead, it should stand with the Iranian people and their organized resistance, recognize the right of Iranians to self-determination—free from all forms of dictatorship, whether monarchical or theocratic—and explicitly affirm their right to confront the Revolutionary Guards and other instruments of repression. This principled shift is both a moral necessity and a strategic imperative for stability and peace in Iran and the region. In fact, this "Third Option" is not a new concept. In 2004, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi told the European Parliament that the solution for Iran lies neither in appeasement nor in war, but in regime change by the people of Iran and their organized resistance. "The policy of appeasement encourages the clerical regime to persist in its policies and, ultimately, imposes war upon Western nations," she warned. "Let us not allow the Munich experience to be repeated—with clerics armed with nuclear bombs." This warning resonates with even greater urgency today: years of appeasement have emboldened the regime, ultimately leading to the very war the world hoped to avoid. The Third Option—change by the Iranian people and the organized resistance—is not only possible, but essential and inevitable. The rising tide of protests, the resilience of the Resistance Units, and the unity around a democratic platform have given Iranians real hope. Supporting this alternative is not just a moral imperative—it is the only practical path to peace, stability, and democratic governance in Iran and the wider region. Tom Ridge was the nation's first Homeland Security Secretary. He was the governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Euractiv
4 days ago
- Politics
- Euractiv
Belgian parliament calls on EU to list Iran's Revolutionary Guard as terrorist organisation
On Friday, the Belgian parliament almost unanimously backed a resolution calling for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be added to the European Union's list of terrorist organisations. They also agreed on tougher migration rules. The paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) report directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and are tasked with safeguarding the regime – notably by suppressing dissent, such as the protests following the death of activist Mahsa Amini in September 2022. In early 2023, the European Parliament had already called on the Council of the European Union to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, but the resolution was not taken up. Belgian MPs want to see the implementation of stricter economic retaliatory measures against the Iranian regime, and called for an expanded list of sanctioned individuals to include members of the judiciary and senior officials overseeing the Iranian prison system. Today's resolution also referred to the case of Ahmadreza Djalali, a Swedish-Iranian citizen and visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), who was arrested in Iran in 2016 and sentenced to death for 'corruption on earth' in 2017. The researcher is believed to have been transferred from Evin prison – which was bombed by the Israeli air force in June – to another detention facility. Besides calling for tougher rules on Iran, MPs also approved stricter rules on family reunifications, which are one of the main channels of asylum into Belgium, through a higher income threshold. Applicants must now earn at least 110% of the guaranteed minimum income (€2,323), plus an additional 10% for each family member. The law will shorten or remove grace periods for family members of refugees and extends the waiting period before relatives may be brought to Belgium. The minimum age for reunification has been raised to 21. (vib)
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Our silence didn't protect him': daughter pleads for father on death row in Iran
In late October 2022, as protests over 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death in police custody swept across Iran, Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, a father of three, was racing through alleyways in the city of Bukan, in western Iran, carrying medical supplies to secret clinics where doctors treated injured demonstrators in defiance of the state. Many of the wounded were too afraid to seek hospital care after reports of secret police patrolling wards, interrogating patients and detaining injured protesters. By helping, Babamiri, a 47-year-old fruit and vegetable farmer, did not see himself as a revolutionary but simply as someone doing what was right, says his daughter, Zhino. 'There was intense firing from the forces and many protesters were injured. Everyone was helping each other and he volunteered,' she says. 'I told him not to talk about it openly on the phone, but he said it wasn't dangerous to help injured people. He just couldn't watch young people bleed in the streets.' Babamiri was arrested in April 2023 and questioned by the ministry of intelligence in Bukan. Zhino, 24, says the family initially believed it was a brief interrogation. 'I was told [by relatives] not to worry and that he'd be home soon,' she says. Instead, he disappeared into solitary confinement and was initially denied access to a lawyer or contact with his family, the Kurdish Human Rights Network says. Last week, the family heard from a lawyer that Babamiri had been sentenced to death, along with four other Kurdish men, after being charged with 'armed insurrection', 'leading and forming an armed group' and 'espionage for Israel'. Zhino, who lives in exile in Norway, says the family have been horrified by the verdict. 'When I heard about the death sentence, I was numb. When I called my grandmother and aunt, they were crying loudly. I have never heard them cry like that.' Since his arrest, Zhino says several people have come forward with stories of how her father helped save their lives. 'These charges have been fabricated. My dad is a simple farmer who loves the people of his community and his family. He is a man who loves poems, likes watching news and enjoys working out,' she says. In July 2024, Iranian state media aired a video showing Babamiri confessing, alongside other men charged in the same case. Human rights groups say his conviction was based on a forced confession. In a letter later smuggled out of prison to the family, Babamiri described enduring more than four months of torture, including waterboarding, electric shocks, mock executions, and beatings that left him partially deaf. 'When I first read the letter, I skipped the parts about torture. I couldn't bear to see what they did to him,' says Zhino. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Amnesty International says Babamiri's arrest in 2023 came during a wave of detentions and executions of students and activists after the 2022 protests, part of the Iranian regime's campaign to instil fear and maintain control. Amnesty has also repeatedly documented the regime's arbitrary arrest and detention of Kurds – an ethnic minority in Iran – based on perceived affiliations with opposition groups, often without credible evidence. 'My dad and the others are paying the price for simply being born Kurdish,' says Zhino. 'They told him no one would care if he died and that he'd end up in a mass grave.' Zhino says members of her family still living in Iran are fearful, and that she was advised by well-wishers to stay quiet after his arrest. 'I regret that. The silence didn't protect him and it almost broke me,' she says. She has become an outspoken campaigner, co-founding Daughters of Justice, a group of Iranians fighting to save their imprisoned fathers. In her most recent phone call with her father, he could not hear her. 'He kept saying, 'Zhino, are you there?'. I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me. I was crying. That moment haunts me.' She now waits every day for news of his fate. 'I am scared to check my phone,' she says. 'I'm terrified I'll wake up to read my father's name [on the death list].'
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Our silence didn't protect him': daughter pleads for father on death row in Iran
In late October 2022, as protests over 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death in police custody swept across Iran, Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, a father of three, was racing through alleyways in the city of Bukan, in western Iran, carrying medical supplies to secret clinics where doctors treated injured demonstrators in defiance of the state. Many of the wounded were too afraid to seek hospital care after reports of secret police patrolling wards, interrogating patients and detaining injured protesters. By helping, Babamiri, a 47-year-old fruit and vegetable farmer, did not see himself as a revolutionary but simply as someone doing what was right, says his daughter, Zhino. 'There was intense firing from the forces and many protesters were injured. Everyone was helping each other and he volunteered,' she says. 'I told him not to talk about it openly on the phone, but he said it wasn't dangerous to help injured people. He just couldn't watch young people bleed in the streets.' Babamiri was arrested in April 2023 and questioned by the ministry of intelligence in Bukan. Zhino, 24, says the family initially believed it was a brief interrogation. 'I was told [by relatives] not to worry and that he'd be home soon,' she says. Instead, he disappeared into solitary confinement and was initially denied access to a lawyer or contact with his family, the Kurdish Human Rights Network says. Last week, the family heard from a lawyer that Babamiri had been sentenced to death, along with four other Kurdish men, after being charged with 'armed insurrection', 'leading and forming an armed group' and 'espionage for Israel'. Zhino, who lives in exile in Norway, says the family have been horrified by the verdict. 'When I heard about the death sentence, I was numb. When I called my grandmother and aunt, they were crying loudly. I have never heard them cry like that.' Since his arrest, Zhino says several people have come forward with stories of how her father helped save their lives. 'These charges have been fabricated. My dad is a simple farmer who loves the people of his community and his family. He is a man who loves poems, likes watching news and enjoys working out,' she says. In July 2024, Iranian state media aired a video showing Babamiri confessing, alongside other men charged in the same case. Human rights groups say his conviction was based on a forced confession. In a letter later smuggled out of prison to the family, Babamiri described enduring more than four months of torture, including waterboarding, electric shocks, mock executions, and beatings that left him partially deaf. 'When I first read the letter, I skipped the parts about torture. I couldn't bear to see what they did to him,' says Zhino. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion Amnesty International says Babamiri's arrest in 2023 came during a wave of detentions and executions of students and activists after the 2022 protests, part of the Iranian regime's campaign to instil fear and maintain control. Amnesty has also repeatedly documented the regime's arbitrary arrest and detention of Kurds – an ethnic minority in Iran – based on perceived affiliations with opposition groups, often without credible evidence. 'My dad and the others are paying the price for simply being born Kurdish,' says Zhino. 'They told him no one would care if he died and that he'd end up in a mass grave.' Zhino says members of her family still living in Iran are fearful, and that she was advised by well-wishers to stay quiet after his arrest. 'I regret that. The silence didn't protect him and it almost broke me,' she says. She has become an outspoken campaigner, co-founding Daughters of Justice, a group of Iranians fighting to save their imprisoned fathers. In her most recent phone call with her father, he could not hear her. 'He kept saying, 'Zhino, are you there?'. I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me. I was crying. That moment haunts me.' She now waits every day for news of his fate. 'I am scared to check my phone,' she says. 'I'm terrified I'll wake up to read my father's name [on the death list].'
News18
4 days ago
- Business
- News18
After Iran-Israel War, A More Unsettled Middle East
In the war's aftermath, the Middle East is more fragmented, its future more precarious The Iran-Israel war, long simmering in the shadows through proxies and intelligence skirmishes, finally erupted into a direct confrontation that not only shook the Middle East but stirred the global order. But when the smoke cleared and ceasefires took fragile shape, one was left asking: who really won, and who truly lost? Or, was there a victor at all? To examine this conflict in isolation is to miss its complex genealogy. The war did not begin in April 2025 or December 2024 when the first missiles were openly exchanged. It began decades ago, seeded in ideological conflict, regional ambition, historical grievance, and strategic calculation. Iran, with its consistent commitment to anti-Zionism, and Israel, with its existential anxiety and security doctrine of pre-emption, have long danced a deadly duet, each enabling the other's paranoia. But it was American withdrawal from regional stewardship and the collapse of the two-state illusion in Palestine that provided the vacuum into which this war was sucked. What we witnessed was not merely a regional war. It was a hybrid conflict—a mosaic of direct missile exchanges, cyberattacks, targeted assassinations, and proxy engagements in Syria, Lebanon, and even the Red Sea. Iran mobilised its axis of resistance—Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq and Syria. Israel, technologically superior, retaliated with brutal precision. Cities in both nations bled. Tel Aviv's iron dome held—but not always. Tehran saw unprecedented cyber blackouts. Lebanon was devastated again. Hundreds died, thousands were displaced, and the economy of the region—already tottering—collapsed further. Oil prices soared, and global supply chains convulsed. For Iran, the war was both a demonstration of capability and a revelation of vulnerability. The Islamic Republic showcased a remarkable ability to coordinate its proxies. The war gave it a psychological edge—it proved Iran could threaten Israeli soil directly, not just through intermediaries. Internally, the war deepened fissures in Iranian society. Already fatigued by years of sanctions, economic mismanagement, and the trauma of the Mahsa Amini protests, a significant segment of the Iranian public was far from united in support of escalation. Still, the regime's narrative of resistance resonated with many, and illusions of regime change in Iran were reminiscent of past Western imperialism, apart from being premature and misjudged. Israel, for its part, won tactically perhaps, but reinforced its dubious image as the bully of the Middle East. The unstable and precarious regime of Benjamin Netanyahu can only survive by invoking the simulated nationalism of war, and the notion of 'Israel under siege'. However, it did demonstrate, backed by the fulsome supply of American weapons, its military and intelligence superiority. Iranian weapons convoys were obliterated. Key militia commanders were assassinated. Tel Aviv showed it could strike at the heart of Iranian infrastructure. But the strategic victory is less clear. For a nation that prides itself on deterrence, Israel failed to deter. Iran did retaliate. Its missiles did land. Its proxies did act. And perhaps most significantly, there is no clarity about whether its uranium enrichment programme has suffered fatal damage. Israel's domestic unity frayed. The war accelerated the cleavage between secular and religious Jews, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi populations, and reignited Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. Israel emerged militarily intact but politically shaken, increasingly dependent on the continued commitment of its American patron. Its image as a democratic fortress amid authoritarian neighbours grew threadbare under the scrutiny of war-time censorship and aggressive counterinsurgency. And what of America? Perhaps there is a diabolical method in the apparent madness of Donald Trump. He allowed Israel and Iran to batter each other, even joining Israel briefly in its attack on Iran, and then when he had left both sufficiently wounded, put pressure on them to agree to a ceasefire. India's position during the Iran-Israel war exemplified the dilemmas of an aspiring global power. Bound by its traditional ties to Iran—a vital oil supplier and a counterbalance to Pakistan's regional ambitions—India also shares a deepening strategic embrace with Israel, especially in defence, agriculture, and cyber-security. New Delhi's official stance was one of predictable neutrality. It called for de-escalation, respect for the sovereignty of both nations, and reiterated its commitment to regional peace. But underneath the platitudes was a passive diplomatic tightrope act. India could not afford to antagonise Israel—now a crucial supplier of defence technologies and a political partner against Islamic extremism. At the same time, alienating Iran would jeopardise the Chabahar port project, India's gateway to Central Asia, and push Tehran closer to China. Moreover, with over eight million Indians living and working in the Gulf, India had a strong interest in preventing the conflict from escalating into a wider regional war. Its evacuation operations were efficient, but it was clear that India still lacks the heft to shape outcomes in West Asia. It is a stakeholder, yes, but not yet a shaper. Perhaps the most haunting truth is that no one won. Iran bled, Israel endured, America equivocated, and India chose to remain a bystander. The people—civilians in Tehran, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Sana'a—were the true losers. Victory was claimed on all sides, but it was a hollow, rhetorical one. The war did not redraw borders. It did not resolve grievances. It merely exposed the unsustainable status quo. In the war's aftermath, the Middle East is more fragmented, its future more precarious. The spectre of nuclear escalation—unthinkable until recently—now hovers ominously over future skirmishes. The real challenge lies ahead—in the building of a new regional architecture that transcends sectarianism, balances power, and invests in peace. India, with its historic civilisational ties to West Asia and its growing economic and diplomatic capital, must strive to be more than a fence-sitter. The writer is a former diplomat, an author, and a politician. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 27, 2025, 14:52 IST News opinion Opinion | After Iran-Israel War, A More Unsettled Middle East Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
