Overthrowing Tyranny.
Restoring Iran.

On necessity: the model of change I have in mind relies on the strength of the Iranian people and is based on a national revolution. In such a model, the immense force of the people, confronting hundreds of thousands of the regime's armed forces, succeeds only when at least part of the military, law enforcement, and security forces either join the people or declare neutrality.

On this basis, while I emphasize the right of every victim of the regime to seek justice, I have always tried to distinguish between seeking justice and seeking revenge. Establishing the truth about all of the regime's crimes, and addressing the cases of human rights violators and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, must happen through a transparent process of transitional justice.

As for feasibility: it's important to recognize the difference between defection actually occurring and it becoming public and open. In regimes like the Islamic Republic, premature public dissent among military and security personnel can be life-threatening. So those who are disillusioned or opposed typically remain within the system until the last moment, working to undermine it from within. Developments in recent years — and especially recent months — confirm that defection is already underway, even if it has not yet reached its tipping point. To reach that point, we need to keep increasing pressure on the regime while offering a clear path out for those within it who wish to break away. Both are necessary, and each reinforces the other.

First, this military conflict is Khamenei's war — not a national, patriotic struggle to defend our homeland. For decades, the Islamic Republic has planned and worked toward a war with Israel aimed at that country's destruction, squandering billions of dollars of the Iranian people's wealth in the process. The cost of this warmongering and unconditional support for terrorist groups in the region has been the spread of poverty and misery in Iran. For years I warned Western governments that the solution to the Islamic Republic problem was not appeasement aimed at changing or containing this rogue regime's behavior — but rather that the approach that could actually prevent war once and for all was maximum pressure on the regime combined with maximum support for the Iranian people's struggle for freedom and democracy. What we see today, with the region on the brink of a larger military conflict, is the result of years of appeasement and concessions to the regime.

Throughout the past 45 years, I have always emphasized that the real force for change in Iran is the strength and will of the Iranian people. In our struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic, we have never counted on the intervention of any foreign power or country, nor have we waited for anyone's green light. I have also always said that if foreign countries support the Iranian people and their struggle to overthrow this regime, they lower the cost of change.

With this outlook, I have never sought regime change through foreign military attack or invasion. Now that Khamenei has put Iran at risk of war, my longstanding message to Iran's armed forces — to separate their path from the Islamic Republic — carries even greater importance and urgency. As long as the Islamic Republic rules Iran, the danger of war will not be lifted from the country; it will only grow with each passing day. Iran's military personnel must not sacrifice themselves, their families, and Iran for Khamenei's apocalyptic ideology and his regime.