On the evening of April 28, the French Foreign Minister warned during a United Nations Security Council session that if negotiations over the Iranian regime’s nuclear program fail to yield results, France will not hesitate to reinstate UN sanctions.
He stressed that:
“The return of these sanctions would permanently block the Iranian regime’s access to technology, investment, and European markets — and would have devastating effects on its economy.”
These pressures are targeted at the economic structure controlled by the IRGC and the Supreme Leader, not the Iranian people.
One day before the minister’s remarks, Reuters (April 27) reported that the Iranian regime had proposed a preliminary meeting in Rome with the European troika (France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), ahead of upcoming talks with the United States.
The purpose of this meeting was reportedly to preserve Tehran’s negotiating leverage and assess the Europeans’ position on a possible activation of the snapback mechanism.
A regime official confirmed that such a proposal had been made but stated that no response had yet been received.
The Tehran Regime Understands Only the Language of Power
The Iranian Resistance has repeatedly emphasized that the first urgent step to prevent the regime from acquiring nuclear weapons is to activate the snapback clause in UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and reinstate the prior resolutions targeting the regime’s nuclear program.
The rationale is clear: Tehran only responds to pressure and power — not conciliatory diplomacy.
Even today, it is firm U.S. threats, not soft-spoken negotiation, that have compelled the regime to return to the table.
A regime that has already plunged the region into crisis without possessing nuclear arms would become far more catastrophic if it were to acquire them.
Sanctions and Iran’s Economy
The Iranian regime, with the help of its lobbying networks in Europe, repeatedly claims that sanctions harm the Iranian people or lead to medicine shortages. However, this claim is false and deliberately misleading.
Following the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA), over $150 billion in Iran’s frozen assets were released. Yet just two years later, in 2017, the country witnessed a major uprising — driven by poverty and skyrocketing prices.
Today, in a nation as resource-rich as Iran, more than two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line.
This dire situation is not the result of sanctions, but rather stems from mismanagement, deeply rooted corruption, and the IRGC’s control over much of the country’s economy.
As one sociologist close to the regime acknowledged:
“Even if we injected $1 trillion into the country, with these dysfunctional structures, we’d be back to begging within two years.”
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is believed to hold the view that keeping the population hungry is a way to prevent dissent and uprisings.
Recently, Massoud Roghani Zanjani, former head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization, made an unprecedented revelation:
Khamenei, he said, opposes improving living standards, telling former president Hashemi Rafsanjani that “prosperity makes people irreligious.”
Today, repression in Iran is no longer limited to executions; starvation has become a complementary tool of control.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical sector — now a mafia controlled by the IRGC — generates astronomical profits and is used as a means to manipulate and occupy the public.
Even access to essential medications is deliberately restricted, keeping people distracted and in constant struggle, while suppressing potential unrest.
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Tehran: A Threat to the Region and the World
Today, the religious dictatorship ruling Iran represents one of the most serious threats to global peace and security — particularly in the Middle East.
The recent explosions in Bandar Abbas, which resulted in hundreds of casualties, were the direct result of the IRGC’s destructive use of civilian infrastructure for its military and terrorist operations — a situation eerily reminiscent of the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah was responsible for storing explosive materials. In Iran, it is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In both cases, it is the people who pay the price.
The Iranian Regime and Hostage-Taking
Since its inception, the Iranian regime has used hostage-taking as a central tool of its foreign policy. The humanitarian sentiments of European citizens — especially in France — have been exploited time and again for political blackmail.
Recently, regime MP Nabavian openly admitted:
“We should not have released the four hostages before unfreezing the blocked Iranian funds in South Korea.”
He added:
“We need to use the cards we have — including hostage-taking.”
In this regime, hostage-taking is not a temporary tactic, but a deliberate strategy of extortion.
The Solution to the Threat of the Theocracy
The fundamental question is: What should be done about the threat posed by the Iranian regime?
There is a real and practical solution: the overthrow of the regime through an organized, popular resistance.
Since the nationwide uprising of December 2017, this resistance has played a crucial role in organizing protests across the country.
As the current speaker of the regime’s parliament himself acknowledged:
“This resistance is responsible for organizing the protests.”
Now is the time for the international community to recognize this alternative and stand in support of it.
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