Carla Sands: The Third Option Is the Only Path to a Free Iran—Neither War, Appeasement, nor a Return to Monarchy

Carla Sands, former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, said that recent developments demonstrate that Iran's ruling system is experiencing its weakest period since its establishment and that the international community now has a historic opportunity to rethink its Iran policy beyond the two failed approaches of military intervention and appeasement.

Sands stated that the surge in executions, expanding public protests, and growing factional infighting all show that the regime has lost its social legitimacy and increasingly depends on repression because it fears the Iranian people and their organized Resistance.

She stressed that democratic change cannot be imposed from abroad, nor can it be achieved by granting concessions to a regime that repeatedly exploits negotiations to strengthen its repressive apparatus. Instead, she argued, the viable alternative is the Third Option—supporting the Iranian people's right to overthrow dictatorship through their organized Resistance, a strategy consistently advocated by Maryam Rajavi.

According to Sands, the continued activities of the Resistance Units inside Iran despite executions, arrests, and unprecedented security measures demonstrate the existence of a determined and organized movement capable of leading democratic change. This, she said, explains why the regime has intensified its repression and executions of political prisoners, particularly members of the PMOI/MEK.

She also warned against attempts to promote the son of the former Shah as an alternative, emphasizing that the Iranian people have already rejected dictatorship in all its forms. The popular slogan "No to the Shah, No to the Mullahs" clearly reflects the public's determination to reject both the former monarchy and the current theocratic regime.

Sands concluded that Maryam Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan offers the most credible democratic roadmap for Iran's future, based on free elections, separation of religion and state, gender equality, abolition of the death penalty, respect for human rights, and a free-market economy. She emphasized that lasting peace and stability in the region will only be achieved by supporting the Iranian people and their organized democratic Resistance rather than prolonging the survival of the current regime.