There Can Be No Nuclear Security While This Regime Remains in Power: Op-ed

Amid escalating political executions in Iran and ongoing international debate over the regime’s nuclear program, Ambassador Robert Joseph, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security stated that more than two decades of negotiations and appeasement have failed to change Tehran’s behavior. His remarks came during a conference held in the Canadian Parliament on the unprecedented escalation of political executions in Iran and the role of the international community.

Ambassador Robert Joseph, former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said: “The real problem is not merely the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, but the nature of the regime itself. Since the National Council of Resistance of Iran exposed Tehran’s secret nuclear sites in 2002, diplomacy, negotiations, sanctions, and even military force have all been tried. Yet the regime has continued buying time, expanding its nuclear capabilities, and intensifying domestic repression.”

Joseph emphasized that “the recent wave of political executions is not separate from the nuclear file or the regime’s regional conduct. They all reflect the same mindset: a regime that views internal repression, external terrorism, and nuclear ambition as integrated tools for survival.”

He added: “Military strikes may delay parts of the nuclear program, but they do not remove the root of the threat. If this regime remains in power, it will seek to rebuild its capabilities and use any new negotiations to buy time and extract concessions. Therefore, the sustainable solution is not managing the crisis but addressing its political source.”

He explained that “the real choice is not between failed negotiations and full-scale war, as some Western policies have suggested. There is a third and realistic option: supporting the Iranian people and their organized Resistance to end the religious dictatorship and establish a non-nuclear democratic republic.”

Joseph noted that “the National Council of Resistance of Iran and Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan provide a clear framework for a democratic Iran based on separation of religion and state, human rights, gender equality, and rejection of nuclear weapons.”

In this context, attention is also turning to the major Iranian demonstration in Paris on June 20, 2026, with around 100,000 Iranians and supporters of freedom taking part, sending a message that the Iranian people possess both an organized democratic alternative and a clear vision for a future free of dictatorship and nuclear weapons.

Ambassador Joseph concluded: “The international community faces a clear choice: continue a failed policy of managing the threat or stand with the Iranian people. The safest path to ending the nuclear threat and restoring regional stability begins with supporting democratic change led by Iranians themselves.”