BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, October 5, 2024, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
The missile attacks carried out by the Iranian regime once again highlight that the driving force behind terrorism and warmongering in the region is the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. Indeed, the head of the snake of war and terror lies in Tehran. At the same time, an execution spree is claiming dozens of lives in prisons across the country. In the first two days of October, 16 prisoners, including one woman, were executed.
The missile attacks also reflect the severe blow dealt to the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, by the death of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah. Indeed, Khamenei has emerged as the grand strategic loser of the war and terror he has sponsored since last October.
Khamenei has spoken about his fears of losing the regime’s so-called “strategic depth,” which was supposed to protect it first and foremost from the “enemy within”—an explosive society and its organized resistance.
Warmongering and exporting terrorism abroad, coupled with the brutal suppression of dissent and anti-regime protests, are the main pillars of Khamenei’s survival doctrine. As long as this regime remains in power, Iran will not be free, and the Middle East will not see peace or security.
Since its inception in 1979, the clerical regime has engaged in external wars, terror operations, and conflicts to mask its true war—the war it wages daily on the Iranian people, their sovereignty, and their national wealth.
While the eight-year war with Iraq raged in the 1980s, the regime also carried out mass executions of political prisoners, including the 1988 massacre, aimed at crushing the nationwide resistance.
Today, Khamenei’s regime is besieged by unprecedented economic and social crises and political disarray. After a series of nationwide uprisings since 2017, Khamenei’s aggressive belligerence and repression will not prevent the regime’s eventual overthrow by the Iranian people and their Resistance.
A democratic, secular, non-nuclear republic in Iran will soon become a reality, which not only benefits the Iranian people but will hugely impact the region and the world.