DISLODGING A DICTATORSHIP

Perhaps the most malevolent tyranny in the world today is the theocratic dictatorship created by the mullahs in Iran. Seventy-five million Iranians are oppressed by the ageing and increasingly psychotic Supreme Leader – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate power together with his puppet president Ebrahim Raisi – dubbed ‘The Butcher of Tehran’ due to his blood-soaked background as an executioner. Only a derisory 8.2% of the population participated in a recent sham poll for members of the Majilis (parliament), indicating forcefully the people’s rejection of the mullahs’ regime. Repeated nationwide uprisings, like the one which took place in 2022 following the death in custody of the young Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini, have been brutally crushed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the regime’s Gestapo, and their thuggish militia colleagues the Basij. The UN is now investigating reports that 750 people were killed in the 2022 uprising, while a further 30,000 were imprisoned. Many have been raped and tortured and a number have been executed in what the UN fact-finding mission describes as a crime against humanity. But as Iranians enter a new year or Nowruz, they should not despair.History is full of examples where dictatorships have been overthrown.

Adolf Hitler and his fascist friend Benito Mussolini thought that they could rule the world. Hitler even declared that he was the founder of a “Thousand Year Reich.” It lasted only 12 years. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of decades of dictatorship under the Communist Party. Popular uprisings, economic instability, and political reforms led to the dissolution of the Soviet regime and the emergence of democratic governments in former Soviet republics. Beginning in late 2010, a series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa led to the downfall of several long-standing dictatorships, such as in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Citizens rose up against authoritarian rulers, demanding political freedoms, economic reforms, and social justice. 

In 1986, a popular uprising known as the ‘People Power Revolution’ ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who had ruled the Philippines for over two decades. Mass protests, civil disobedience, and the support of the military played a crucial role in ending authoritarian rule. In December 1989, popular unrest and mass demonstrations culminated in the overthrow and execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The fall of the Ceausescu regime marked the end of decades of oppressive communist rule in Romania. Through a combination of international pressure, internal resistance, and negotiations, the apartheid regime in South Africa under President F.W. de Klerk was dismantled, paving the way for democratic elections in 1994 and the election of Nelson Mandela as the country’s first black president.

These examples highlight the power of popular movements, international pressure, internal dissent, and diplomatic efforts in bringing about the downfall of dictatorships and the transition to more democratic forms of governance. All of these essential elements are in place to end the mullahs’ gangster regime in Iran. With the launch of their Nowruz campaign, popular Resistance Units affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin of Iran/ Mojahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), have burgeoned in towns and cities across the nation, increasing their activities, distributing leaflets sticking up posters, installing banners, writing slogans on walls and public buildings. IRGC and Basij offices have been firebombed. Government TV stations have been hacked with Resistance messages interrupting peak-time broadcasts. 

In Tehran, leaflets bearing slogans calling for the resistance movements to intensify their campaign to liberate Iran were distributed alongside those with messages from Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the charismatic president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), declaring that the time for the final uprising had come and that the only solution for the mullahs’ dictatorship is to overthrow it. Banners have appeared bearing the slogan “It is time for revolution”, alongside graffiti which says: “Death to Khamenei, hail to Rajavi”. Women have emerged as staunch advocates for freedom within the resistance movement. On many of their placards, the Resistance Units have written, “Woman, Resistance Freedom,” highlighting the pivotal role women play in the struggle for democracy and human rights in Iran. Their voices, amplified by the collective roar of the Iranian people, serve as a beacon of hope for a nation yearning to break free from the shackles of oppression.

On the international scene, support for the main democratic Iranian opposition has grown exponentially. Over 3,600 members of various parliaments in 40 countries, including over 1,000 prominent women, have shown their outright support for Mrs Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for the future of Iran. At the end of last year, 108 former world leaders signed a joint statement of solidarity with the people of Iran, showing their support for Mrs Rajavi, the NCRI and the PMOI/MEK. Signatories to the letter included former US Vice President Mike Pence and 50 former Presidents, 47 former Prime Ministers, one former Chancellor, and nine other former Heads of State from across the world. Two former Presidents of the European Commission and three Nobel Peace Prize laureates were also among the signatories. The letter condemned the regime’s brutality and oppression and reasserted that any change should come from the people of Iran themselves, but that the international community must show their support for their human rights. The 108 former world leaders deplored the “decades of apparent silence and inaction by the international community” stating that this has “helped fuel a culture of impunity in Iran”.

Western appeasers of the Iranian regime must have realized by now that the mullahs and their IRGC goons play a central role in the international drugs trade, laundering dirty money for gangsters and cartel Godfathers, helping the regime to overcome the impact of western sanctions, and providing it with the means to finance and supply its terrorist proxies. The IRGC controls more than 70% of the Iranian economy, pays no tax and is answerable only to the Supreme Leader. For decades the IRGC and its extra-territorial Quds Force (QF), has provided funds, delivered arms, trained militants, and sponsored proxy wars, supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Shi’ite militias in Iraq. The overthrow of the mullahs’ regime would restore peace, freedom, justice, democracy, women’s rights, human rights and an end to the nuclear threat across Iran, the Middle East and worldwide. Dictatorships always fall and the West must support the people of Iran in dislodging their tyrants.