Iran

It fell to Masoud Pezeshkian, a former heart surgeon who is now the reformist president of Iran, to pass on the message that had been resounding on the streets of Tehran for two days.

The regime would do well to pay heed, Pezeshkian said, to protests that erupted in the capital over the country’s deepening economic woes.

They should also pay attention to where the demonstrations began, Iranian exiles add, and the images of defiance that seem to have put a regime, at least for a moment, on the back foot.

A teenager from Iran sent me these videos with this message:
“I was terrified while filming them. Please share them and show the world that we, the people of Iran, do not want this regime.”

The protests in Iran began in Tehran and are now spreading to cities across the country.… pic.twitter.com/4xu2S5vh86

— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 29, 2025

Big protests against the Islamic regime in Iran. These people could be convicted under Labour's proposed "Islamophobia laws". pic.twitter.com/eYY6zrl6WL

— Leo Kearse – on YouTube & touring (@LeoKearse) December 29, 2025

Protests are erupting across Iran against Khamenei’s terrorist regime. Despite attempts to suppress the demonstrations, the movement keeps growing.

After 46 years of oppression and executions, Iranians deserve freedom and peace.

I stand with the great people of Iran. Do you? pic.twitter.com/1KZ4hnUyvv

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 30, 2025

No matter how many sanctions are imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran, its regime continues to survive, adapt and expand its influence. This endurance is not the result of economic strength or internal legitimacy, but of a carefully constructed system designed to evade restrictions, exploit loopholes, and rely on foreign actors willing to ignore or undermine international enforcement.

As long as the Iranian regime can breathe through these openings, sanctions alone will not weaken it; instead, the regime will continue to fund repression at home, empower militant proxies abroad, and project dominance across the region.

While everyone is focusing on Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, Iran has stealthily been rebuilding its war machine.

One of the most effective ways to slow the remilitarization of Iran’s brutal regime is not only to put direct pressure on the regime itself but also to target the countries that allow it to operate freely, fund its proxies, and expand its influence.

Iranian security forces have “violently arrested” Nobel Peace Prize winner and women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi, her foundation has said.

The Narges Foundation said Ms Mohammadi, 53, was detained in the eastern city of Mashhad, along with other activists.

The Nobel Committee said it was “deeply concerned by today’s brutal arrest of Narges Mohammadi” and called on the authorities “to immediately clarify Mohammadi’s whereabouts, ensure her safety and integrity, and to release her without conditions”. Iran does not appear to have commented.

The European Union is reportedly preparing to sit down with Iran to negotiate on its nuclear program — again. Even Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — the UN’s nuclear watchdog — seems interested in engaging Iran in “diplomacy” again.

Iran’s regime, not surprisingly, appears more than happy to accept these overtures. On the surface, this international charm offensive may appear to be a constructive effort toward dialogue, but a dryer analysis suggests that such negotiations risk handing a monumental victory to a vicious regime that is vulnerable and weak — and rabidly opportunistic. By offering Iran another platform for legitimacy, the EU and the UN are shoring up a monumentally brutal regime at a time when, for the West’s own good, it should be applying pressure, not extending a hand.

Little attention is being paid to Iran in the aftermath of the 12‑Day War, but the threat it now poses is growing significantly. While global focus has shifted to other crises, Iran has rapidly and aggressively been accelerating its ballistic missile production at the speed of light. The Iranian regime is proudly announcing its manufacture of vast quantities of missiles, expanding assembly lines, and is openly boasting about its growing arsenal. Iran is not concealing these developments; it is bragging about them. The regime, despite a crippling drought, appears to feel emboldened, empowered, and determined.

“Water water, every where, Nor any drop to drink,” from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, is a suitable motto for the Islamic Republic of Iran. With the Persian Gulf in the Southwest, the Sea of Oman in the South, and the Caspian Sea (an inland brackish water lake) in the North, Iran is surrounded by water, yet there is very little to drink.

Iran’s experts, of course, blame Israel and the U.S, for manipulating the weather (and the women who do not wear hijabs properly, ed.)and causing a drought so severe that the Islamic Republic’s president says he may “have to evacuate Tehran.”

While US President Donald J. Trump and his administration are working hard to bring peace to the Middle East and disarm terror groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, the Iranian regime and its proxies are doing their utmost to ensure that their Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel continues in full force.

The Iranian regime is evidently (and understandably) afraid of losing its terror proxies – Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. These terror groups, whose primary goal is to eliminate Israel, have suffered severe blows over the past two years as a result of Israeli military operations targeting their leaders and military infrastructure.

Please do not think that just because Iran took a few hits in June that their threat is over, or that the Iranian regime has learned its lesson or is going to change. Iran’s is not a normal political system that responds to diplomacy as other governments do. Iran’s regime is fundamentalist — built on a radical ideological foundation. Iran’s regime defines its very existence by confrontation, expansion and violence.

Once again, Europe seems to have slipped into a dangerous fantasy: that engaging in polite diplomatic parleys with promises of sugar plums will tame Iran’s rapacious ambitions.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (E3), acting as the European Troika, declared their intention to revive the long-stalled nuclear negotiations with Iran. In a joint statement, they pledged to “reopen a path toward a comprehensive, lasting, and verifiable agreement.”