Seven B-2A Spirit bombers prepare to depart Whiteman AFB, Missouri, for Operation MIDNIGHT HAMMER to strike Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday, June 21, 2025. (Courtesy 509th Bomb Wing)

The activation last month of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal’s “trigger mechanism,” reimposing international sanctions on Iran – a clear indicator of the theocratic regime’s growing isolation – has yielded an unexpected consequence: President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan has reportedly been met with acceptance by all Arab and Islamic countries as well as by European nations, even by Hamas, who once was militarily and logistically supported by Tehran in its anti-Israel campaigns across the region.

Yet on Oct. 1, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, through an editorial in a state-run newspaper, dismissed the plan as “a scheme to rescue Netanyahu from the Gaza quagmire.”

The reality is clear, however: The Islamic Republic of Iran currently stands alone in rejecting a plan that seeks to end war, destruction and human suffering in Gaza – and by extension, across the region.

Tehran’s opposition to peace is nothing new. The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, once referred to the ceasefire with Iraq after an extraordinarily bloody eight-year war as a “chalice of poison.” Today, for his successor, Khamenei, any form of peace in the Middle East is a similar poison – one his regime cannot digest without resorting to war, repression or the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

As an old Persian proverb goes, “The snake is the source of all evil – war, bloodshed, poverty and suffering.” And based on this logic, the Iranian resistance has long insisted that the head of the snake lies in Tehran.

While the regime fuels conflicts abroad, it has also plunged its own people into extreme poverty and repression at home.

Trigger mechanism and a collapsing economy

Following the reactivation of sanctions on Sept. 27 after months of failed political maneuvering, even regime-aligned media couldn’t mask the consequences. In a piece titled “Apocalyptic Joy Over the Return of Sanctions,” the government-affiliated Setareh Sobh newspaper wrote:

“Extremists are celebrating the activation of the trigger mechanism – despite the catastrophic consequences it will have on the economy and people’s lives.”

Previously, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, had expressed similar dismay:

“The extremists’ celebration of renewed sanctions is unbelievable. Their lives are worlds apart from the people’s suffering. Their lavish lifestyles are built on the pain of children who go to bed hungry.”

Although Falahatpisheh avoided naming these “extremists,” the veil was partially lifted by Abdolnasser Hemmati, the former minister of economy recently ousted by President Masoud Pezeshkian. Speaking during his impeachment session on Feb. 28, 2025, Hemmati revealed:

“This country faces over $30 billion in smuggling annually. People ask what the Minister of Economy is doing. But when 20 million liters of diesel are smuggled abroad every day, what can the Minister really do? Our nation is caught in the grip of smugglers, sanction profiteers and rent-seekers. Nearly 80% of the population is being crushed by the weight of their corruption.”

While Hemmati did not explicitly name those behind this massive smuggling network, only institutions linked to Khamenei’s inner circle or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have the power and infrastructure to operate on this scale. Indeed the IRGC, which controls many of Iran’s key ports and borders, is uniquely positioned to carry out the daily smuggling of tens of millions of liters of fuel.

The real conflict: People vs. the regime

Over the past 34 years, Iran’s resistance movement – particularly the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) – has disclosed over 130 revelations about Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, significantly hindering its path to a bomb. Without their efforts, a nuclear-armed Iranian theocracy would now be a reality.

Unfortunately, Western appeasement policies have enabled the regime to inch ever closer to nuclear capability, bringing the region to the brink, most recently during the 12-day war, and plunging it into a precarious state of “no war, no peace.”

Iran’s rulers still refuse to accept zero uranium enrichment, a key non-proliferation demand.

But the real question is not about centrifuges. It’s about who truly holds power in Iran.

Since the nationwide uprising of 2017-2018, the Iranian people have made their stance unmistakably clear: They reject the brutal theocratic regime. This historic demand has been expressed through an ever-growing organized resistance movement. Today, in every province across Iran, the real confrontation is not external; it is between the Iranian people and their rulers.

On one side is the IRGC, the regime’s military-industrial backbone. On the other, thousands of resistance units, affiliated with the PMOI/MEK, are carrying out daily acts of defiance, organizing protests and challenging the regime’s stranglehold on their society.

For years, Western governments have ignored or dismissed this reality. Yet these resistance units are the only viable force capable of driving meaningful, lasting change in Iran.

Last month, Khamenei himself admitted his fear, referring to these activists as “MEK sleeper cells,” and warning of their role in planning another uprising. His fear of a domestic rebellion is what led him to ignite the current war in Gaza – hoping to distract the public and galvanize loyal forces through external conflict.

The only viable path forward: Regime change by the people

There is only one sustainable solution for both Iran’s future and regional stability: regime change led by the Iranian people and their organized resistance.

This is not just a call for democracy in Iran. It is a strategic imperative for global peace and security.

The time has come for the international community to acknowledge the Iranian people’s uprising, recognize their right to resist, and support their struggle for a free, democratic Iran.