Exclusive - Iranian Opposition Group: Iran Has ‘Failed’ to Quell Uprising, Regime’s Overthrow 'Now Inevitable’

The “overthrow” of the Islamic regime of Iran is “inevitable,” as it has “failed” in quelling the current uprising, according to a leading member of Iran’s parliament-in-exile, who called on the Biden administration and international community to increase sanctions and “terminate” all diplomatic and political ties with “barbaric” Tehran.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Ali Safavi of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and President of Near East Policy Research (NEPR), a consulting and policy analysis firm in Washington, DC, addressed the current state of the anti-regime protest movement that began roughly four months ago following the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman in police custody.

“The nationwide uprising is now into its fourth month and clearly, despite everything that the regime has done — whether it is widespread arrests that have seen some 30,000 arrested, or whether it is the killing of some 700 protesters, including more than 70 juveniles, some as young as two, and about 60 women — it has failed to quell the uprising,” he said.

The continued resistance seen in the Iranian street, Safavi explained, is something completely unexpected.

“No one, [not even] the regime itself, expected the uprising to last as long as it has,” he said. “And quite frankly, despite some ebbs and flows, it is quite obvious that the situation will not return to the status quo before September 16 when that 22-year-old Kurdish girl Mahsa Amini was killed in custody of the so-called ‘morality’ police,” he said.

“A page has been turned in the four-decade long confrontation between the Iranian people and the medieval theocracy that has been ruling that country with an iron fist,” he added.  

Despite any previous expectations by others, Safavi asserted the current uprising “has not subsided by any stretch of imagination,” having only gained traction and support since its onset. 

“Even more so because now basically every generation of Iranians, from those in their 60s to those in their 70s to those in their 80s and 90s, and now even high school kids, plus all sectors of Iranian society, from university students, high school students, elementary school students, lawyers, artists, writers, workers, farmers, nurses, merchants — Iranians from all walks of life — have all joined in this uprising, making it very clear that they are determined as never before to bring down this regime,” he said. 

The reason so many have joined in supporting the protests, he explained, is because “many of the underlying political, economic and social grievances that have affected the lives of many Iranians remain unresolved,” and as long as the current regime is in power, “those issues will not be resolved.”

“Add to that the misogynist policies that this regime has pursued, reflected in the mandatory veiling and many discriminatory laws against the women — then you have fifty percent of society, namely women, who have more than just one reason to oppose this regime,” he said.

“And they know very well that as long as the mullahs are in power, they will never experience gender parity, nor will they see their rights to choose their occupation, their spouses, their clothing and their way of life,” he added.

Safavi maintained that the uprising “will continue,” arguing that “the developments of the past three months have made what was inconceivable to many, namely the overthrow of the regime, now inevitable.”

“It is not the question of if,” he said. “It is only a question of when that will happen.”

He also noted that “now in many protests, even women who are veiled head to toe, for example in Zahedan in southeast Iran, chant ‘with hijab or without hijab, with the veil [or] without the veil, onwards to revolution.’” 

“So that’s the sentiment,” he added.

Iranian Resistance

Safavi also highlighted the role of the exiled People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) opposition group, which he credited with sustaining the demonstrations: 

One very important factor that has kept the uprising going is the role that has been played by the resistance units who are affiliated with the MEK. In fact, the regime itself, officials, everybody from [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei to [President Ebrahim] Raisi to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to the Judiciary Chief Mohseni-Eje’i, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Commander [Hossein] Salami, and a whole host of other officials and Friday prayer leaders — they have all been saying that it is the MEK and the resistance units that are not only fueling the fires of this uprising, but also giving it direction, coordinating it and organizing it.

Such is apparent, he claimed, from the fact that “the various slogans that the resistance units have been promoting and promulgating ever since they were formed some five years ago in Iran, are now being chanted by everybody on the streets of Iran.” 

In addition, he noted, “many actions that they undertook in the past five years are now being repeated by the protesters, like the graffiti and chants of ‘Death to Khamenei,’ ‘Death to the Dictator,’ ‘Death to the Oppressor’ — be it the Shah or the leader, meaning Khamenei.”

“All of these chants initially were written on walls and broadcast in public places on loudspeakers, in shopping malls, in parks, busy intersections of the streets, in Tehran and other cities, by the resistance units,” he added.

According to Safavi, the protesters are “taking the cue from what the resistance units did.” 

“Similarly, some of the targeting of the regime symbols, posters, banners, pictures, [and] statues — like the statue of [slain Iranian General] Qassim Soleimani — which were first torched by resistance units, are now being frequently torched by the resistance units, as are the centers and bases of the paramilitary Basij, the IRGC, and some of the other state organs that are involved in suppression,” he said.

“So it goes to show that the tactics and the strategy that the resistance units have pursued are now bearing fruit because they have become popularized,” he added. 

Recent Executions

Addressing the recent public executions of two young men for their participation in the protests, Safavi claimed that not only did they not succeed in quelling the uprising, but, “if anything, [they] laid bare the absolute desperation of the regime in the face of the protests.”

“The regime has done everything [and] used everything in its toolkit to suppress the protests, but it has failed,” he said. “And I think the latest attempt, the executions of these two young men to instill terror and intimidate the public, has already backfired for it has [only] fueled the rage of the protesters who have said that for every one that dies, thousands will rise up.”

“And that is why we see even in the funeral of these two martyrs, a lot of people turned out and their slogans were quite defiant,” he added. “They said it is not the time to bow our heads in sorrow. It is the time to keep our head up and be vengeful and express rage.”  

Currently, some 30 protesters have been sentenced to death, he noted, adding that many more have been sentenced to the charge of “mohareb,” a term meaning “enemies of God” and which ultimately carries the death penalty. 

“Their sentences have not yet been determined but clearly the regime will not get anywhere with this because it only enrages the public and demonstrates to them that the only way that they can bring down this regime is to step up their activities and take even more steps that they have already taken in confronting the security forces,” he said.

With Iranian Police Chief Hossein Ashtari on record saying some 3,000 members of the “suppressive forces” have been wounded by the protesters, along with reports that “at least 101 have been killed in clashes with protesters,” Safavi insisted that if the Islamic regime “steps up its repression and killing machine, naturally, it should be expected that the protesters would also step up the kind of activities that they have been undertaking to the next level.”

“And so these executions are not going to stymie the protesters because all along people knew that this is what it takes, and so they know what the ultimate price is for freedom and they have demonstrated that they are willing to pay that price,” he added.

International Response

Regarding the global community’s response thus far, Safavi claimed it is preferable to its response in 2019 “when 1,500 protesters were killed and the world was largely silent.”

“What has been done and said is positive and necessary, but in no way sufficient,” he said. 

Calling some sanctions that have been imposed on the regime’s officials responsible for the current suppressive measures “basically symbolic because none of those individuals is ever going to travel abroad, and even if they do they will go under aliases” and “none have any assets in the U.S. or in Europe, and if they do it’s under aliases,” Safavi indicated such sanctions “will not have any bearing tactically, at least on these criminals.” 

“Politically, of course it looks good and it gives the impression that the world is not silent, but is still insufficient to say the least, and more action needs to be taken,” he said.  

He then called on the international community, and “first and foremost among them the Biden administration” to “make an unequivocal statement that the Iranian people have the right to overthrow this regime and use any means at their disposal to make that happen,” saying it would “go a long way in encouraging the people of Iran to take the resistance to the next level.” 

In addition, he called for all diplomatic and political ties with Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism worldwide, to be “terminated.” 

“How could you engage in a dialogue with a regime that kills two-year-olds, that kills 10-year-olds, that kills women under torture, and that according to many reports that have now become public, “sexually assaults female prisoners” in captivity?” he asked. “How can you shake the hands of people who commit these types of crimes?”

“And so all political ties with this regime must be severed,” he added. 

Addressing the recent booting of Iran by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from the preeminent 45-nation Commission on the Status of Women, Safavi called it a “positive step, though it should have never been a member in the first place.” 

“Iran, under the rule of the mullahs, is the most misogynist regime on the face of the earth,” he said. “Its laws and practices clearly discriminate against women.”

“They consider women as subhuman in every aspect imaginable,” he added. 

He also called to stop “any resources that offer a lifeline” for the Islamic regime. 

“Its oil exports must be sanctioned to a point that it reaches zero, because the only thing that keeps this machinery of killing going is money,” he said, adding that it “pays agents to kill people.”  

In addition, he urged Europe to “do what is long overdue, which is to designate the IRGC and its affiliated agencies along with the Ministry of Intelligence as ‘terrorist entities,’” which would “make it very difficult for Western companies to do business with the regime.”

“Many of the weapons used against the protesters are made in the West — in the US and in Europe,” he said, adding that “parts for the drones that the regime has been sending to Russia are built in Europe.”

“All of this must be stopped,” he stated.

Lastly, he called for all of the regime’s envoys — plus its agents who are operating under different names — to be “expelled” from the UN and from Europe.

“This is the only way that I think the West can rise up to its responsibility to safeguard the very values that it champions,” he said. “Otherwise, this will be a mockery of all the principles that we have come to know and respect.”

Accusing Western governments of having chosen to “ignore the bitter, painful and dark reality of life in Iran under the mullahs” where the “basic human rights of the Iranian people have been denied for the past 40 years,” Safavi insisted that things are now different.

“Now that they have seen what has happened in the Iranian street, they should take actions commensurate with the barbaric behavior of this regime, and they should also support the Iranian people as they are vying for a democratic future, a government… that would lead Iran to the future,” he said.

“So this is what is expected from the international community,” he added.

Arguing that “respect for the human rights of the Iranian people should be front and center in any policy consideration vis-a-vis Iran,” Safavi called the notion of “still having some hope of reviving” the Obama-led nuclear deal which President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018 — as “foolhardy.” 

“A regime that kills its own people and has not kept up its commitments under its own constitution to its people — how can one believe that it would keep up its commitments when it comes to nuclear weapons and other international obligations?” he asked.

“In fact, in the past 43 years, this regime has flouted every single international convention and every single international covenant and treaty,” he added. “Show me one that they have respected.” 

He also questioned why the Islamic regime — dubbed by Iranians as a “child-killing regime” — is still a member of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Though “there’s a lot that needs to be done by the international community,” Safavi insisted the Iranian people “will of course achieve what they are set out to achieve, which is the overthrow this regime.” 

“The role that the international community can play is either to expedite reaching that goal or hinder it,” he said. “But I think the onus is on the international community to do what is needed, just like what they did with the South Africa’s apartheid regime that led Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress to ultimately come to power in that country.”

“Reformers”

He also slammed the suggestion that longtime “reformers” could offer a substitute to protesters. 

“What the Iranian street has proven to everyone, including many who for many years invested in the idea of some reform from within, that the Iranian people reject this regime in its entirety,” he said. 

“And it is not at all a coincidence that the so-called ‘reformist’ faction has been deaf and mute in the face of this uprising,” he added. “Not one of them has spoken out against what the regime is doing because the so-called ‘reformers’ are also hell-bent on preserving this theocratic totalitarian regime.”  

Asserting that the difference between such “reformers” and today’s ruling faction is merely one of “tactics” used, Safavi pointed to the series of nationwide “Bloody November” protests in Iran several years ago.

“Recall that the November 2019 uprising was when [‘reformer’ Hassan] Rouhani was president and it was the interior ministry under his presidency that ordered the killing of 1,500 protesters,” he said. 

“And it was under his regime that the Ukrainian passenger airliner was shot down [in 2020],” he added. “And so clearly the ‘reformers’ are just another side of the so-called ‘hardliners.’”

Recalling that “in the 43 years of the Iranian regime being in power, for 33 years, the so-called ‘reformers’ have been in power and they have perpetrated some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, including the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, 90 percent of whom were members and sympathizers of the MEK, and incidentally, all of them were charged with ‘mohareb’ and hanged,” he said. 

“Just as we saw [hanged] protestors Majid Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari charged with [and] executed on the same charge,” he added.

The remarks come as massive protests continue to sweep Iran following the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic theocracy’s notorious “morality police” for violating strict requirements for women to keep their heads covered in public.

Amini was reportedly abducted and killed by the force for having exposed some hair from beneath her mandatory Islamic headscarf.

Iranian officials have unconvincingly claimed she died of natural causes after the patrol stuffed her in a van and carted her off to a grim detention center. 

However, her family insists she had no life-threatening health problems. 

Since then, a slew of incidents involving abuses and even deaths at the hands of the regime have been documented amid an ongoing clampdown on protests, with clips circulating showing Iranian regime officers brutally assaulting protesters.

In October, NCRI representatives claimed Iran is currently witnessing a revolution “in the making,” asserting that despite the crimes and “savagery” committed by the regime’s “suppressive forces” — including the killing and torturing of protesters during current protests against the Islamic regime by angry citizens — the Islamic Republic is no longer capable of containing the current uprising.