Washington, DC, November 15, 2025. The Free Iran Convention 2025 convened in Washington, D.C., uniting an extraordinary gathering of Iranian scholars, professionals, and international dignitaries to examine the roadmap for change at a decisive moment of crisis for the ruling regime. Honorable Mike Pompeo, the 70th U.S. Secretary of State, addressed the convention. Secretary Pompeo’s remarks focused on the certainty of the regime’s failure, its increasing international isolation, and the essential role of the organized opposition in leading the inevitable transition to a free, democratic republic in Iran. Below is the full text of his speech.
Thank you all for that incredibly gracious welcome. It is wonderful to be again amongst so many dear friends, so many fellow believers in the future of a free Iran, it is great to be with you. And what an inspiring speech by my friend, Madame Rajavi. It’s a privilege to follow her.
And more than follow her, I want to take up precisely where she left us all. This is about forward. We know the history. Today, my remarks want to spend a bit of time recounting where we find ourselves today and talk mostly about where we all pray we will find ourselves tomorrow. With a nation that has arisen from inside, to oust a regime that is illegitimate, and to build a place where all people of all genders can flourish and succeed and have the freedom that each of them so richly deserves. And it is thanks to the bravery of Iran’s organized political opposition that their opportunity that I just spoke of is real, that this positive change and liberation of the Iranian people can happen and will happen.
We all know a few basic facts, right? This regime is weak. You can see it. It is more internationally isolated than ever. Those of you who have friends or family who are there know that the situation on the ground for the Iranian people today is difficult. We also know that there is zero popular legitimacy of this regime, and that it now has resorted, as it has for the past years, but even more today, to using fear as its only tool to shape. We saw that in the brutal suppression in 2022.
The economy in shambles. Mismanagement, poisonous corruption, a regime that would simply rather take wealth than build it, destroy the resources of a great country, and whose leaders have zero, no desire for the future for the Iranian people. But you know, it’s interesting to watch this regime fail. We’ve seen it fail now in Lebanon. Hezbollah, not gone, but reduced in its impotence, a shadow of what it once was. Lebanese leadership needs to move forward and use this opportunity as a chance to deliver good outcomes for the people that are living there. Hamas, cornered, weaker, struggling, but anyone in this room that thinks they will give up without a fight, I think, is a fool. This is a resistance movement inside of that place, and it needs to be crushed. And it needs to be crushed by the people of Gaza.
In the end, much like in Iran, the resistance needs to be defeated by the good people that live in those places who know that the path of terror and extremism, the path to dictatorships and monarchies inside of these places is a path which will never lead to freedom and prosperity. In Syria, a regime that has collapsed, an evil dictator like Assad no longer in control, but now the people of Syria are faced with a stark choice, whether they want to build unity, prosperity, a connected nation of people of different descents, the Druze, the Kurds, the Alawites, right, different backgrounds, Muslims that live in the region. Do they want to build a Syria based on a foundation of freedom and prosperity, equality for each individual, or will they return to a model that has so poorly served them for so many years? And of course, an Iranian nuclear program that no longer threatens the world in the same way it did just several months back. That does matter.
Too many Western nations cowered in the face of that nuclear capability, of that nuclear power. And while it is never fair to say that the Iranian regime’s nuclear capabilities have been totally destroyed or defeated, it is absolutely fair to say today that its capabilities to regenerate, to deliver that threat, to have air defense systems that could protect their capabilities is massively diminished. And for that, we should thank both the Israeli government that did so much damage and the United States of America, President Trump, who in Operation Midnight Hammer, did so much to create so much opportunity for the world to rally to support the Iranian opposition inside of that country. We should thank them for the good work that they each did. You know, I’ll bet you all get asked the same question I get asked. Mike, you’ve been at this a long time. When is this rotten regime going to fall?
And they’re looking for me to give them a date. Oh, it’ll be next Wednesday, about noon. Or a month from now, or a year from now. These questions are impossible to answer. We know only of the certainty of its failure. That’s great, I see some young people here today. There’s a bunch of old folks like me here too. You young people may not remember as much of what I’ve lived through. I served America in its United States Army. I patrolled the then East German border.
The East German people terrorized by the Stasi inside of their own country. And a Soviet Union that looked corrupt, it looked dangerous, and it looked to be in power for some time. Nobody could answer the central question. We all know that the Soviet Union would fall, but Mike, you’re a young lieutenant patrolling that border. When will it fall? The date was unpredictable, but it came with unbelievable speed out of nowhere. These rotten regimes fail. We only know that the requirement is internal resistance to force that moment to come more readily and sooner, and I’m confident that we are well on our path to that.
Does anyone in this room remember who predicted the Syrian regime’s moment of failure? No, we don’t predict these moments. They happen. They happen through dedication and hard work. They are not accidents of history. They are the work like people like you and Madam Rajavi and NCRI who help and deliver the capabilities so that the resistance can grow and be prepared for the moment that that day comes. You know, this is important, too. We should never forget that this will be a wonderful, great thing for the people of Iran, but it will be a great thing for the people of the United States of America as well. It will be great for people all across the world.
A thriving, democratic, popular government in Iran, not a theocracy, not a monarchy, not an oppressive regime. This will be a great thing for the entire world. We are waiting for that day, and it will be a blessing to us all. Three more thoughts for you. Madame Rajavi spoke about appeasement as failure. We see that in Europe today. If you appease tyrants, they will grow in power and stature, and they will prolong the time until the regime falls.
Pallets of cash delivered from the West only enable the brutalization of the opposition inside of these countries. It fuels terrorism, it funds global risk, and it gives the regime money to continue its effort to deliver on its objectives, not the objectives of the people of Iran. On our streets here in the United States, I see too many people, many of them young, who have supported what Hamas has done. This is indecent. It is indecent in the same way that anybody who speaks about a regime in Iran as, well, it’s the only solution, doesn’t understand basic human dignity and the fundamental objectives that we must all share to embolden and empower and support the opposition inside of Iran so that its day will come quickly.
The isolation of the regime was something I spent a great deal of my time in government service focused on. The more that we could starve the regime of its money was to the good. The more that we could starve rid of any credibility was to its detriment. And the more that we could starve rid of any moral authority was an absolute imperative. There are many tools still available to all of us. The snapback of sanctions against the buyers of Iranian oil would deny Iran the capability to do what we all know it is intent upon doing. It wants to rebuild Hamas. It wants to rebuild Hezbollah.
It is still funding the militias in Iraq that had a real impact on an election that was held this past week. This empowers and builds friends for the Ayatollah and his henchmen, the IRGC. We must deny them wealth and resources. We know, too, that what was built in the first Trump administration, it became what was known as the Abraham Accords, now expanded by one country, begins to build a basic framework, a model that can deliver for not just Iran, but for the entire region. We must build out the friendships with Arab countries who, too, want to see the Iranian regime fail.
The leaders in the region know that the great risk does not come from the United States. It does not come from Israel. It sits in Tehran. The leadership of Tehran still, to this day, hosts the Al-Qaeda leadership in its city. We know that that empowers them. We all must work against their continued capacity to host terrorists and extremists, and then to foist that terror upon Europe and the world. I call upon my European colleagues and friends. Do not fall for the storyline that there is no alternative.
Everyone in this room knows precisely that there is an alternative, a free and independent sovereign Iran delivered to it by its own people. The democratic alternative that Madam Rajavi and so many of you have been working to and demonstrate its capability now for 40 years knows the history. But it, too, is totally prepared for the day that we have the opportunity to move forward. We know that the propaganda machine dismisses the 30,000 people who were massacred in 1988. We know that they dismiss all the work that the resistance has done inside of Iran, preparing itself for that today.
] Look, the roadmap that has been laid out is clear. It is straightforward. It is one that, as an American who has studied American history, knows it is a fraught path. It is never an easy one. But the people who stand strong in the moment can deliver a free nation. It can deliver a republic. And sometimes that republic will last 250 years, and I pray another 250 years. I’m rooting for the same thing for the people of Iran.
You know, I have observed the NCRI in my time in Congress, my time as CIA Director, my time as Secretary of State, and now my time as an American civilian. I’ve watched everything that this organization has done, and I’ve watched what it has not done. It didn’t ask for American boots on the ground inside of Iran. It didn’t ask for an external change of regime. It didn’t ask the West to do anything more but support the Iranian opposition and put pressure on the regime so that the day that it reaches its ultimate demise comes more quickly and more certainly.
That’s all that’s ever been asked. That’s precisely how revolutions take place. That’s precisely how governments are overthrown. It’s precisely the reason that existing theocratic, oppressive, terrorist regimes will one day meet their ultimate end. So what are we going to do? How are we going to bring this forward? The focus of my remarks today forward, how do we deliver this forward? And for those of you who have lost loved ones or family members to this brutal regime, we should never forget the history.
And the importance of moving forward is predicated on our recollection, our honoring those people who have lost family or loved ones to the regime’s brutality. You will always be in my prayers and that of my family. And you will always be in my thoughts as I think about the way to deliver the outcome that the people of Iran so richly deserve. Hang together. Stay together. Be together as a community. Come together on a Saturday afternoon when you could have been doing many things to remind ourselves of the task that we have before us and the good work that we can do to support the opposition inside of their country.
Speak out. Speak out consistently and from your heart. and with a conviction in the knowledge that you are right and that your goal, your objective, will one day be achieved. The just, God-given right of all human beings to live in a free and prosperous society will one day find its roots inside of Iran. I know that it will. It is our solemn duty to help deliver that. I pray that our leaders in the West, here in the United States and elsewhere, will take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity that presents itself today to support the Iranian people in their aspirations for freedom. And I have every confidence that before too long, I will get the chance to be with you, and we will get to hear from an Iranian leadership duly elected by the people of Iran. What a glorious day that will be. And when that day happens, Iran will take its rightful place among those nations that respect basic human dignity. And on that day, Iran will take its place with a set of leaders that respect the basic fundamental rights of every parent to raise their children in the way that they so choose, for every teacher to educate their children about the things that matter most, and for every community in Iran to set its own course. The aspirations run deep. The work that you have done to date is powerful.
Thank you for that. May God bless you. May God bless Madam Rajavi and the great people of Iran. Thank you all so very much. Thank you.