\nU.S., others should support post-regime forces<\/p>\n
By Carla Sands\u00a0\u2013 The Washington Times<\/a>, \u00a0Thursday, May 21, 2026<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the military conflict between Iran and the\u00a0United States<\/a>, the Iranian nation itself stands at a historic crossroads.<\/p>\n The death of Supreme Leader\u00a0Ali Khamenei<\/a>\u00a0and the cumulative impact of 40 days of war have left the religious dictatorship in a more fragile position than at any other point in its history.<\/p>\n Yet the regime\u2019s vulnerability did not begin with recent events. For years, it has been eroded by deepening international isolation, economic collapse, and recurring nationwide uprisings supported by an increasingly organized opposition movement.<\/p>\n For 47 years, Western powers have vacillated between appeasement and confrontation in their approach to Iran. The former has consistently emboldened Tehran\u2019s aggression, while the latter has demonstrated its clear limitations.<\/p>\n When the shah\u2019s dictatorship was overthrown in 1979, the world saw the Iranian people\u2019s capacity to bring about change. However, that opportunity was quickly hijacked by an Islamist faction led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.<\/p>\n Owing to its medieval outlook, incompetence and ruthlessness, that regime never achieved legitimacy in the eyes of the Iranian people. From the outset, activists and dissidents resisted the new regime.<\/p>\n No organization played a more sustained role in that resistance than the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). After contributing to the shah\u2019s downfall, the MEK refused to endorse the constitution that institutionalized clerical rule. As a result, it became the regime\u2019s primary target.<\/p>\n MEK members accounted for the vast majority of the estimated 30,000 political prisoners executed during the 1988 massacre. Despite this attempt at eradication, the organization endured and continued to grow. Even today, its members remain among the principal targets of the regime\u2019s renewed wave of executions.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, among the 25 dissidents put to death, eight of them were MEK members. This surge underscores the regime\u2019s growing reliance on repression in the face of mounting internal pressure. In protest to the wave of executions, 100,000 people will take part in a rally on June 20 in Paris, calling for a halt to executions and in support of a democratic republic.<\/p>\n