“Iran’s Streets: The Battle the Regime Fears More Than War”

While the Iranian regime seeks to project an image of unity through organized rallies and nighttime processions, developments on the ground reveal a different reality. The regime’s primary concern is not external threats but the Iranian people themselves. Recent events following the latest regional conflict have demonstrated that the ruling establishment views the streets of Iran as the decisive battleground that will determine its future.

Mr. Ali Safavi, member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated:

“The regime is attempting to convince the world that the crowds it organizes represent genuine popular support. In reality, these gatherings are mobilized through the Basij network, state institutions, and official structures of control. The extensive security measures surrounding them reveal a government that fears its own people more than it fears war.”

Safavi emphasized that the regime’s greatest threat comes from within Iran, not from abroad. “That is why, after the war, the authorities chose more arrests, tighter controls, internet restrictions, and intensified repression rather than openness or reconciliation. A government confident in public support would not need such measures.”

He noted that the admission by Police Chief Ahmad Reza Radan that more than 6,500 people had been arrested since the outbreak of the conflict reflects the depth of official anxiety. “The repeated references by security officials to the MEK and the Resistance Units confirm that the regime regards organized resistance as the principal threat to its survival.”

Safavi added that the recent wave of political executions is intended not only to punish individuals but also to intimidate society as a whole. However, these measures also reveal the regime’s fear of a new and broader uprising.

He further stressed that Tehran understands that social anger alone is not enough to produce change, but that organized networks capable of transforming public discontent into a political movement represent the greatest challenge to its rule.

Referring to the major Iranian gathering scheduled for June 20, 2026, in Paris, Safavi said that the event will demonstrate to the international community that the Iranian people possess a democratic and organized alternative and that their struggle is aimed at establishing a democratic republic based on freedom, pluralism, and the rule of law.

He concluded: “Wars may damage infrastructure, but what the regime truly fears is the Iranian people reclaiming their streets. The future of Iran will not be determined by state-organized spectacles or propaganda campaigns, but by the ability of the Iranian people and their organized resistance to achieve democratic change and end decades of dictatorship.”