The Islamic Republic regime has ruled Iran for more than 46 years; a regime that has repeatedly appeared to be on the brink of collapse, yet remains in power. This situation does not stem from popularity, legitimacy, or political, social, and economic efficiency. Rather, it is the result of a brutal combination of suppression, executions, warmongering, oil revenue, an aggressive foreign policy based on war and terrorism using proxy forces, and exploiting the treasonous policy of appeasement by Western countries over the past 40 years. A summary of these factors is detailed below:
1. Bloody Suppression and the Policy of the Noose
From the very first months of the revolution, the regime began widespread executions. Thousands of intellectuals, political opponents, and particularly members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) were targeted. The pinnacle of this crime occurred in the summer of 1988, where in less than a few months, around 30,000 political prisoners—mostly members of the PMOI—were executed. This "policy of the noose" continues to this day through the successive suppression of popular uprisings, to the extent that in recent years, Iran has recorded the highest number of executions in the world. By ruthlessly massacring and physically eliminating democratic alternative forces, the regime has blocked the public emergence of a powerful domestic alternative.
2. Centralizing Economic and Military Power in the Hands of the IRGC
With immense calculation, the regime handed over almost all key levers of the economy and security to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Today, the IRGC owns Iran's largest economic empire: from oil and gas to petrochemicals, ports, road construction, telecommunications, and smuggling. This "IRGC rentier economy" has given thousands of IRGC commanders and managers vast material interests in the survival of the regime. For them, any fundamental change means losing wealth and power. The IRGC has become not only an ideological army but also a parallel government and a military-economic mafia for the regime.
3. Missile Cities and the Nuclear Program: Spending on Survival, Not Welfare
The regime has spent billions of dollars of the people's oil revenues on building a network of secret "missile cities" deep within mountains—dozens of massive underground bases housing thousands of missiles. Concurrently, more than two billion [dollars/euros] have been spent on the nuclear program and closing in on an atomic bomb. This comes at a time when the Iranian people are grappling with poverty, inflation, unemployment, and shortages of medicine. The regime has chosen to spend everything on tools of survival and deterrence rather than investing in the country.
4. Proxy War and the Export of Terrorism
The regime has spent billions of dollars on proxy terrorist groups to protect itself and survive against popular uprisings: approximately $50 billion in Syria, hundreds of millions of dollars annually to Lebanon's Hezbollah, and billions of dollars in Iraq, Yemen, Gaza, and even on Afghan and Pakistani forces. This "proxy octopus" has served two main functions: maintaining a free hand to suppress the Iranian people while warmongering in the region under the guise of "defending Palestine," and creating aggressive bargaining leverage to force the West into compromise and silence regarding the daily massacres, torture, and executions of the Iranian people, while flexing its muscles for the international community.
5. The Western Policy of Appeasement: Demonization and Total Censorship of the Democratic Resistance as the Greatest Gift to Preserve the Regime
One of the most important reasons for the regime's survival has been the West's policy of "appeasement" and "engagement" with this regime against the democratic opposition. Commercial contracts, the JCPOA agreement, silence in the face of executions and the suppression of protests (2009, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2025), and even efforts to revive the JCPOA, alongside censoring opponents and demonizing the democratic Iranian resistance over the past 40 years, have repeatedly breathed new life into the regime. Fearing instability, the West practically gave the regime the opportunity to gain power and become a greater threat.
Furthermore, it must be emphasized that according to genuine and long-standing royalists close to the Pahlavi family, the regime's intelligence apparatus—in tandem with foreign services—has for years engaged in a political and psychological war. By infiltrating the inner circle of the "Shah's son", the regime has exploited this delusional royal figurehead against the PMOI and Iran's democratic alternative to ensure the survival of the mullahs' regime. This has been carried out through political, intelligence, financial, and manpower operations by the IRGC Intelligence, disrupting and causing the failure of popular uprisings by sowing division among the ranks of the people through the generation of fake and automated content in cyberspace.
6. Conclusion
Based on statements by Mr. Charles Michel, the former President of the European Council, and many media outlets, the mullahs' regime is still standing not because of political and social strength, but due to the policy of the noose, the ruthless suppression of the people and the resistance (as its main enemy), terrorism, warmongering, the 40-year appeasement by Western powers, and the demonization of the popular resistance. This regime is a "religious-military mafia" that has built its tools of survival using the money and blood of the Iranian people. It has done so through the appeasement of foreign countries in exchange for cheap oil and economic contracts, spending astronomical sums from the pockets and dinner tables of the people at the cost of severely impoverishing society over the past 40 years by weaponizing accommodating industrialized nations.
However, this survival is temporary and highly fragile. History has shown that no dictatorship can sustain its existence by suppressing the people and their resistance. It must be said without a doubt that when domestic pressure (popular uprisings) is combined with decisive international pressure (instead of appeasement) and support for the united democratic alternative—namely the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and Maryam Rajavi's 10-point plan—the mullahs' regime will quickly reach its end. I emphasize that the world is in the midst of a choice between "the continuation of this dangerous octopus" or "supporting the popular resistance for democratic change." This choice must be made as soon as possible, and by recognizing Iran's democratic alternative, the overthrow of this regime will be definitively guaranteed.
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