Opinion: To change the regime in Iran, you need no war

From left, President Rouhani, The Supreme Leader Khamenei, and the parliament speaker Larijani

By: Shahriar Kia

Al Riyadh daily, 25 August 2017 - The objective of Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the religious dictatorship under the pretext of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in establishing the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on May 5th, 1979, was to form a military force completely loyal to the mullahs’ Velayat-e faqih system.

This entity, set to be equipped with modern and heavy weaponry, would be tasked to protect the ruling institution.

This is exactly why the IRGC is this regime’s Achilles Heel and weak point. If comprehensive and immediate sanctions truly disarm the regime of this lever and expel the IRGC from the Middle East, the pillar protecting Iran’s religious dictatorship in the face of popular uprisings and international crises will crumble.

As the Ayatollahs began to establish their rule, the IRGC was tasked to oppress and eliminate dissidents, pursue Tehran’s warmongering and export terrorism. The IRGC has played a very active role in the execution of over 120,000 political prisoners during the past four decades.

The IRGC was behind the crackdown campaigns of Iran’s 1999 and 2009 uprisings, and the oppression of Iran’s religious and ethnic minorities, including the Kurds, Iranian Arabs in Ahvaz and Baluchistan.

A decade later, the IRGC was also placed in charge of the regime’s nuclear projects, ballistic missile drive, and the country’s economy.

To this end, the IRGC has become this dictatorship’s political, strategic and economic guardian.

Despite all this, warmongering and exporting terrorism is of the utmost importance for Tehran and the IRGC has monopolized such a role.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, relying on the IRGC, is on the verge of establishing a fundamentalist empire stretching from Tehran to Beirut and the Mediterranean, continuing to extend to Yemen and the Red Sea.

This empire is the necessity in safeguarding the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, which is utterly loathed by Iran’s people.

 

IRGC in the Middle East

The IRGC is missioned to fuel sectarians and exporting terrorism across the region.

However, these measures are not a sign of Iran’s upper hand and stability. It is quite the opposite, resonating from Tehran’s weakness and terrified of its rule being toppled.

If Iran actually enjoyed stability and power there would never be any need to resort to terrorism.

Exporting terrorism and instigating sectarian wars, considering the heavy political price on the international stage and isolations, would never be in Tehran’s interest if it enjoyed stability at home.

Meddling in other countries is aimed at cloaking the crises that currently endanger the mullahs’ entire existence.

“If the IRGC had not fought the wars in Syria and Iraq, we would now have been fighting in Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Khorasan,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is known to have said.

He recently took one step further and added, “If the IRGC were not present in the region who knows Tehran’s and streets nearby would be in whose hands.”

If this designation and comprehensive sanctions were imposed against the IRGC prior to this, and not delayed due to the West’s appeasement policy, we would not be witness to such humanitarian catastrophes, so many innocent lives lost in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and the harsh oppression of the Iranian people.

Necessity of regime change in Iran

During the past three decades, the Iranian regime has profited immensely from the West’s appeasement policy, especially when faced with the 2009 uprising that, according to the regime’s own senior officials, shackled the very pillars of their rule. However, the Iranian people were abandoned by the West.

Despite all these concessions and engagement with the mullahs, despite all the neglect in the face of their terrorism and crimes, Tehran was not only never contained, but left to further its savagery.

During the past few months based an initiative launched by regional states, seen very vividly in the historic Riyadh conference back in May, and the new US government vis-à-vis Iran has brought to life new hopes.

Following the adoption of a new Congress sanctions bill – signed into law by President Donald Trump – targeting the IRGC and designating this entity as a global terrorist, all the articles of this initiative must be implemented immediately and without any loopholes.

The IRGC should subsequently be evicted from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Such actions will significantly weaken the IRGC. Only in such a scenario can Iran’s destructive meddling in the region be confronted, and Middle East peace and security guaranteed.

NCRI President Maryam Rajavi in a speech last month at the annual Iranian opposition convention in Paris emphasized on a very important matter.

“From the outset, the regime was at war with the people of Iran. All the other wars waged against foreign countries have been designed to cover up this main conflict.

But these wars are not an indication of the regime’s strength.

They are an indication of the fact that no government in the region has ever attempted to prevent the regime’s belligerence,” she said.For regime change in Iran, there is no need for war or military intervention by a foreign state. The international community needs only to end its appeasement, economic deals, and concessions to Tehran, which is literally maintaining this dictatorship in power.

The Iranian people and their organized opposition are fully capable of realizing this change.