By Yelena Mandenberg, News Reporter
09:00 ET, 13 Jun 2025
As U.S. President Donald Trump insists nuclear talks go forward, even after Israeli airstrikes hit Iranian nuclear factories during the night, expert activists already predicted the attempt at brokering an agreement would be moot. Several Iranian experts say that they don’t hold their breath for potential deals with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as ‘diplomacy is an impediment’ for a populace who has waited decades for the regime to be weak enough to collapse.
To Dr. Majid Sadeghpour and Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad, board members of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) interviewed a week before Israel began striking nuclear facilities in Tehran and around the country, “The Iranian people have no illusion about how the regime is playing its game right now during these kinds of negotiations because they’ve seen this movie before.” It comes as a haunting map predicted the US regions where 75% of people will die in a nuclear World War 3.
Experts say Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is in fear of a ‘total collapse’
“They know that this regime is sitting at the negotiation table to buy time. Because the ultimate goal is to get their hands on the bomb. It is not to get a deal,” says Dr. Sepehrrad. “We’re talking about a regime that’s extremely weak internally.”
“The regime’s primary fear is that of a restive population working to overthrow it. That is why the regime has executed on average 120 people a month since August 2024,” adds Sepehrrad.
Dr. Sepehrrad says that Khamenei’s government is on the verge of crumbling. “It is extremely vulnerable to any sort of pressure from the people, but it’s number one fear is the instability in the streets of Iran. And its attempt to prolong negotiations for as long as it can is in line with the design for survival,” says Sepehrrad.
According to the experts, Iranians are against enrichment. “It is not for peaceful ends and therefore also in direct opposition to the Iranian people, who are rejecting the nuclear program under this regime,” Sephehrrad continued.
Her theory is in line with updates from the U.S. administration. Last Tuesday, Trump told Fox News that Iran is becoming “much more aggressive” as the U.S. leader attempts to reach a deal that will end enrichment.
Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad explained that the Iranian regime has several weak points
“Iran is acting much differently in negotiations than it did just days ago,” Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “Much more aggressive. It’s surprising to me. It’s disappointing, but we are set to meet again tomorrow—we’ll see.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s ‘Muslim’ travel ban further darkened that mood, leading Iranians to fear Trump will lump the nation’s 80 million people with its theocratic government, the IRGC, even after he repeatedly praised them while seeking a deal.
Khamenei has refused to bend to Trump, saying in a television address that, “Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear programme and the enemies have focused on the enrichment,” as he lambasted the U.S. for insisting the country abandon plans of a nuclear weapon.
Dr. Majid Sadeghpour heads an Iranian American group of activists
Last week, Khamenei rejected Trump’s proposed nuclear deal, and on Monday, Iran threatened to leak ‘stolen Israeli nuclear secrets.’ Finally, tensions between Israeli and Iran hit another high when Israeli Mossad agents launched attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and the IRGC headquarters, taking out at least six commanders and a handful of nuclear scientists.
Major Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed in the strike along with IRGC chief Hossein Salami.
To Drs. Sadeghpour and Sepehrrad, the talks are a moot point as they say the regime is the weakest it’s ever been.
“In our view, that demonstrates his deeper fear of the internal unrest. He’s [Khamenei is] not worried about the foreign threats. He’s not worried about the foreign war. He’s worried about what’s happening in the explosive situation on the ground with the Iranian people right now,” Dr. Sepehrrad says.
It has been about three weeks “of the truck driver’s strike across the entire country, 31 provinces. Iran’s economy runs through the truck driver distribution of the goods and the services that come through the port. But they’re on strike, and they’re trying to really signal the regime that we’re going to be using our truck as a weapon against this tyrannical regime. Taxi drivers are joining them, and the regime has responded with threats and arrests,” explains Dr. Sadeghpour.
“If, in fact, this was an economic grievance by the truck drivers, why would we respond with arrests and threaten them with consequences like national security consequences?” added Dr. Sadeghpour.
“They are dealing with a very weak regime. The regime is much weaker than it was year ago, two years ago, or even 10 years ago, and I’ll tell you why. Because the regime has lost its influence in the region. The regime’s top ranks, who were among the key players in terrorism at home and abroad, like Qasem Soleimani, are no longer part of the equation,” Dr. Sadeghpour lays out the road to the regime’s collapse.
Dr. Sepehrrad adds, “Khamenei does not have a successor. Khamenei is dealing with very bad health, and there is no succession. It’s completely delegitimized politically in Iranian society, as indicated in the nationwide uprisings and the ongoing strikes every month, whether it’s the truck drivers, the taxi drivers, or the Iranian bakers. All of these indicators demonstrate that it is more than economic grievances.”
“The regime is not able to respond to the public’s social, political, and economic demands, and it is also highly isolated. From the rest of the international pressure is mounting on this regime,” say the experts.
“So the breaking point is, I believe, ahead of us, and that’s why I think when we look at House Resolution 166, where the majority of the bipartisan U.S. Congress in the House of Representatives agreed and decreed that America must support the Iranian people’s right to overthrow this regime… so the conditions on the ground are right. The conditions internationally are right,” explains Sepehrrad.
“It just requires that point of political recognition of the Iranian people’s right to overthrow this regime and let them figure out what is the path forward, because the regime is killing, the regime is assassinating, the regime is kidnapping, and the regime is torturing,” Dr. Sepehrrad goes on. “Offer them [Iranians] political and moral legitimacy support, not money, not weapons.”
“It is the Iranian people’s right to self-defense and push back on the terrorist IRGC, and on that ground there is a very growing and impressive network of resistance units that are all across Iran, based on the studies and the monitoring of the news that I have personally done and we’ve done it through our organization,” the expert activist says.
Dr. Sephehrrad and Sadeghpour view the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as a viable and proven alternative capable of leading Iran’s transition from the current regime to a democratic system.
“Iranians did not come this far to settle for anything of the past. We are going to move forward to a non-nuclear secular republic,” Dr. Sephehrrad asserts.
