A nation of 90 million is watching its homeland being impoverished, terrorized, plundered, and driven toward the abyss by a ruling cult that would sooner destroy Iran than relinquish power.
For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic has consumed the country it claims to govern – its wealth, dignity, security, and the hopes of generations. Now, as economic collapse, repression and the specter of war converge, Iran is approaching a historic breaking point: Will the regime that has held it captive since 1979 finally fall – or drag the country into the abyss with it?
Iran is engulfed in chaos, its economy already collapsing. An incompetent government, presided over by a subservient and populist president, convenes emergency meetings as the country descends deeper into crisis.
Yet Iranians no longer heed the regime’s deceptive promises. The government has lost its grip on the economy and inflation, while Tehran’s markets spiral into turmoil. Officials’ hollow pronouncements and empty assurances no longer command the slightest credibility.
Only the regime’s loyalists profit from the status quo, prepared to watch Iran be destroyed for their financial interests. This same circle has pillaged the country from end to end. Poverty and relentless inflation have brought Iran to its knees.
A woman holds an Iranian flag near an anti-US billboard depicting US President Donald Trump and the Strait of Hormuz, in Tehran, Iran, May 25, 2026. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)Iran’s regimeprepares for a broader war
Since 1979, a criminal cult has ravaged, plundered, and suppressed the country in service of a fraudulent ideology, holding 90 million people captive. Its rulers now proclaim themselves “the superpower of the world,” boast of having “defeated America and Israel,” and warn that “the region will not be safe as long as even one American soldier remains in the Middle East.”
From state media to Friday-prayer pulpits, regime platforms threaten US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Islamic murderers and criminals relentlessly inflame hostility toward Israel and the United States.
The Islamic Republic is preparing for a broader war and has no desire for an agreement with Trump. Through deception and duplicity, it keeps him entangled in diplomacy and proclaims that deception a victory. The regime will not hand Trump the political triumph of an agreement, even at the price of every Iranian’s life and Iran itself reduced to scorched earth.
Iran’s military and security establishment remains committed to warmongering and crisis-making. Trump says Washington does not know whom to talk to in Iran. Then what purpose is served by this hollow theater of negotiations with Islamic murderers and terrorists? Six years of his presidency have pursued this impossible dream without producing a single signed agreement.
Meanwhile, Iranians live with profound insecurity, despair, and abandonment. Executions, torture, arrests, and persecution have become grim fixtures of ordinary life. The struggle for basic subsistence has left society paralyzed, angry, and exhausted. While ordinary citizens are denied prosperity and opportunity, money continues flowing to notorious religious institutions, the shadowy Shi’ite clerical mafia, the machinery of repression, and the regime’s vast propaganda apparatus.
The regime is releasing criminals from prison, arming them with swords, knives, and sledgehammers, and unleashing them to threaten Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the only alternative and leader of Iran’s national uprising – including explicit threats against his life.
Alongside the regime stands a jealous, ambitious, and self-aggrandizing opposition: religious-nationalists, reformists, communists, Kurdish separatists (KDPI, Komala), anti-Israel and anti-American terrorists such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), discredited human-rights activists, and mercenaries. Much of this opposition acts in concert, little more than puppets performing before cameras.
In the event of an American and Israeli attack, the regime intends to drag Iran into civil war and reactivate Islamic terrorist networks through the mosques. Its organic relationship with al-Qaeda and ISIS is becoming increasingly unmistakable, while Iran’s borders remain open to them. Hashd al-Shaabi, the Fatemiyoun, the Zainabiyoun, and others are integral components of the Islamic Republic’s machinery of repression.
The regime’s propaganda apparatus promotes weapons training, as though a regime nearing collapse is preparing its supporters for urban warfare. Under the banner of confronting America and Israel, it provides military training with an unmistakable objective: to bring war into Iran’s cities, streets, and alleyways. Islamic terrorists know neither peace nor the value of life and security.
Across Iranian cities, the atmosphere is increasingly one of war. People whisper: Will Trump launch the final attack? The country hangs like a pendulum in uncertainty, with law and order unraveling. The mullahs intensify street propaganda to drown out protest, yet a national uprising looms. The regime calls participants in its street spectacles – its “Islam Party” – fedayeen, echoing the political theater of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.
The Revolutionary Guards and security officials squander their days in endless meetings, terrified by the deepening crisis and sheltering behind a bankrupt, discredited government. Agriculture, industry, and production have ground to a halt. There is no coherent plan to regain control. The regime’s security calculations are unraveling.
Iranians await another war in the hope that the bloodthirsty wolf of the Islamic Republic will finally be brought down. They hope Trump will finish the job – or allow Israel to eliminate the regime’s thugs and criminals, layer by layer.
Meanwhile, the regime intensifies killings and executions, hoping to prevent economic misery, relentless inflation, soaring prices, and mounting social anguish from erupting into the “final battle.” Iran is passing through fateful days as urban repression intensifies. The regime’s ultimate nightmare is a popular uprising. A regime that kills its own people for daring to protest will stop at no crime to preserve its rule.
And yet, behind every headline about war, sanctions, missiles, and nuclear negotiations lies another Iran – the Iran of ordinary people who simply want to live. They want to raise their children without fear, put food on the table, walk their streets without repression, speak without looking over their shoulders, and grow old in the country they love.
For nearly half a century, generations of Iranians have watched their lives disappear into prisons, graves, exile, poverty, and shattered dreams. They are not asking the world to give them a country. They already have one – an ancient and beloved homeland called Iran.
They are asking for the chance to take it back. Ninety million people have waited long enough. In memory of the 50,000 slaughtered in Tehran’s streets by the Shi’ite mullahs and IRGC thugs, who cried out, “This is the final battle – Pahlavi will return!” Iran deserves to live again. “Make Iran Great Again!”
Let us hope Washington has the resolve and unwavering will to make it happen.
The writer is a Middle East political analyst. His latest book, Tehran’s Dictator, examines the theocratic era of Ali Khamenei (1989-2026). @EQFard