"Where Is the Train of Iran and the Region Heading? And Why Has the Third Solution Become a Necessity?"

Mohammad Khanji – Expert on Iran and Regional Affairs

Current developments in the region can no longer be seen merely as a crisis between Tehran and Washington, or as another stalled nuclear negotiation. What is unfolding today is a major geopolitical realignment that places the international community and Arab states, especially the Gulf countries, before a decisive question: can the world continue waiting for a regime to change its behavior when, for 47 years, threats, interference, and the export of crises have been part of its very structure?

During a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the posture of U.S. Central Command, the CENTCOM commander described the nature of the Iranian threat clearly. He stated that since 1979 the Iranian regime has terrorized the region, used its network of proxies to undermine neighboring governments, exported state-sponsored terrorism, and relied on ballistic missiles, drones, and nuclear coercion as tools of regional and international pressure. The testimony also described Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria as the backbone of the Iranian threat network.

This assessment reflects a regional reality. From the UAE to Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, the same pattern repeats itself: networks linked to the IRGC, espionage elements, sabotage cells, and attempts to penetrate domestic security. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a continuous strategy by a regime that treats the Arab neighborhood as a field for influence and blackmail. Gulf security is no longer only a military issue; it is part of a wider struggle between the national state and cross-border militia projects.

The U.S. testimony also emphasized the integration of regional partners into air-defense structures and the need to deter Iran and its proxies. It noted that the combined Middle East air-defense network intercepted thousands of drones and ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. forces, Israel, and Arab partners. This shows that the region has entered a new phase in which Tehran’s threats can no longer be treated as temporary crises.

Yet military deterrence alone is not enough. The problem is not only a missile, a militia, or the Strait of Hormuz. The problem is the regime itself. Therefore, the real question is no longer how to contain the regime, but why the international community has not yet recognized the Third Solution.

The Third Solution rejects two failed options: foreign war, which allows the regime to claim victimhood, and appeasement, which gives it time to rebuild its tools of repression and aggression. The Third Solution means standing with the Iranian people and their organized resistance for democratic change driven from within Iran, not by foreign tanks and not by deals that rescue the regime.

Inside Iran, after 47 years of clerical rule and six major uprisings, the two fronts are now clear: the front of freedom and pluralism, expressed in the slogan "No Shah, No Mullah," and the front of dictatorship and totalitarianism represented by the ruling theocracy and all those who seek to reproduce dictatorship in another form.

This is why the responsibility of the international community and Arab and Gulf states is no longer limited to condemnation or waiting for negotiations. The time has come to recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow this regime and to politically engage with the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its declared provisional government as an organized framework for a democratic transition toward a non-nuclear, non-sectarian Iran that does not export terrorism.

The major Iranian demonstration in Paris on June 20 is a political test of this moment. It is not merely a protest gathering; it is a declaration that there is a people, an alternative, and a vision for a different Iran. Supporting and attending this demonstration is therefore not only an Iranian matter. It is also an Arab and regional message: Gulf security begins with ending clerical rule in Tehran, and recognizing the Third Solution is no longer a postponed option, but a political, security, and moral necessity.