Mousa Afshar: The Understanding with Washington Delays—But Does Not Resolve—the Iranian Regime's Crisis

Mousa Afshar, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said the preliminary understanding between the United States and the Iranian regime should not be interpreted as a strategic victory for Tehran.

"The regime accepted this understanding not from a position of strength, but because mounting internal and external pressures threatened its survival," Afshar stated. "It has shifted from pursuing regional expansion to defending its own existence."

He stressed that the core issues behind the confrontation—including Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles, regional interventions, and its relationship with Washington—remain unresolved.

"A ceasefire does not eliminate the causes of conflict," he said. "It merely postpones them."

Afshar argued that the Iranian regime has consistently used negotiations as a tactical tool to buy time rather than change its behavior.

"For decades, Tehran has treated diplomacy as a means of managing crises, not resolving them. Experience has repeatedly shown that concessions do not alter the regime's strategic conduct."

He emphasized that recent events also demonstrate another key reality:

"Neither war nor negotiations can determine Iran's future. Real change can only come from inside Iran, through the Iranian people and their organized Resistance."

According to Afshar, the regime now faces deepening economic collapse, inflation, unemployment, growing poverty, renewed factional infighting, and increasing public dissatisfaction.

"The authorities fear a new nationwide uprising far more than they fear renewed military confrontation," he said. "That is why executions, arrests, and repression continue."

He concluded:

"The current understanding may halt one round of military confrontation, but it cannot solve Iran's fundamental crisis. The decisive battle will ultimately be decided inside Iran by its people and their organized Resistance in their struggle for a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state and respect for human rights."