Iranian regime can’t be broken with bombs, says opposition leader
Maryam Rajavi says the idea of cutting a deal with a moderate leader is unrealistic — and the Iranian people ‘will write their own destiny
The Times, March 16, 2026
Hopes that the US-Israeli bombing campaign will topple the regime in Tehran are vain, according to the head of the movement that claims to embody the Iranian resistance.
Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a Paris-based umbrella organisation, also dismissed suggestions that a deal could be made with a moderate leader within the country’s theocracy as unrealistic…
“The Iranian people will write their destiny with the blood of their own children, and there is no need for foreign intervention,” she said.
In one recent comment on the war, President Trump suggested that a Venezuela-style solution — replacing a hostile ruler with one from within the same regime but willing to serve US interests — would be “perfect”.
Rajavi believes this would be a mistake. Ever since her movement entered into resistance against the ayatollahs 44 years ago, “we have said the regime is incapable of reform and must be overthrown”, she said. “Had these warnings been heeded, the world would not be facing today’s crisis and war. Unfortunately, the policy of appeasement has led to this situation.”
She said: “Western governments justified concessions to the regime under the illusion that it would [become] moderate.” Instead, the so-called moderates and reformists had shown themselves to be “monsters massacring protesters in the streets and pursuing nuclear weapons, missile programmes and proxy terrorism”.
The NCRI, which announced the creation of a “provisional government” in exile to coincide with the start of the US-Israeli military intervention last month, is well connected in the West. Among those listed as speakers at the movement’s conferences in recent weeks were John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons; Sir Liam Fox, the former defence secretary; and David Jones, the former Brexit minister, along with two of Nato’s former supreme commanders in Europe, General James Jones and General Wesley Clark.
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Dr. Sadeghpour discussed the announcement of the provisional government, announced by Maryam Rajavi and the NCRI. This segment of NewsNation aired on March 13th, 2026.
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