As talks between Iran and the United States on Tehran’s nuclear program continue to resurface, revived, stalled, or rebranded under various formats, one reality remains unchanged beneath the diplomatic surface: the Iranian regime cannot and will not relinquish its nuclear ambitions. Any apparent flexibility or rhetoric about “peaceful nuclear rights” is a calculated façade designed to safeguard what lies at the very foundation of the clerical regime’s survival strategy.
The insistence on uranium enrichment, often framed as a national right, is not rooted in energy policy or technological pride. It is strategic deception. Behind the mask of peaceful intent lies a regime determined to maintain its capacity for building a nuclear bomb. Why? Because the regime’s very existence is propped up by three foundational pillars: internal repression, regional warfare through proxy militias, and the pursuit of nuclear weapons as an existential insurance policy. The nuclear program acts a life insurance policy.
This is not mere theory. The regime has openly admitted its need to wage war beyond its borders to prevent unrest at home. “If we do not fight in Syria, Iraq, and Gaza, we will have to fight in Tehran,” Khamenei famously warned. The nuclear file, like the missile program and regional militias, is an instrument to project power, suppress dissent, and deter international pressure.
In the face of the regime’s malign activities, the international community must no longer delay the activation of the snapback mechanism. This regime is a threat to global peace and security and must be placed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
The ultimate solution… pic.twitter.com/xq7rckIpaQ— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 3, 2025
The regime’s regional grip has already unraveled. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and the growing weakness of Tehran’s proxy forces, one of the main pillars of the regime’s regional influence has collapsed. Losing another pillar, its nuclear leverage, would be like swallowing a poisoned chalice, a step the regime dreads, knowing it would weaken Khamenei’s hegemony and thus could trigger a new wave of uprisings inside Iran.
Indeed, giving up enrichment would be more than a diplomatic concession. For the regime, it would be a symbolic surrender of one of its final tools of imposing its influence in the region and holding the world hostage to silence its malign activities across the region and beyond. It would signal weakness. And in a country where protests have erupted across 280 cities, where chants of “Down with the Dictator” have echoed for years, any sign of vulnerability could ignite the flames of uprising.
Furthermore, the regime would face a formidable internal backlash from tens of millions of impoverished Iranians, whose livelihoods have been sacrificed for a nefarious nuclear program that has drained over two trillion dollars from the nation’s coffers¾twice the cost of the devastating eight-year Iran-Iraq war.
Khamenei Orders Acceleration of Nuclear Weapon Production to Ensure Iranian Regime’s Survival.
The #Iranian Resistance once again emphasizes the need to activate the “snapback mechanism” in #UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and reactivate the suspended resolutions concerning…— Mohammad Mohaddessin (@Mohaddessin) October 15, 2024
It is not accidental that the regime links its survival so tightly to its nuclear capability. In the face of continuing internal dissent and a disintegrating power base, the regime needs the illusion of strength, which rests on war-making capabilities and the perception of nuclear prowess.
As such, it becomes unmistakably clear: the clerical regime will never abandon its nuclear program. This is not simply a matter of policy, it is the pillar of the regime’s survival strategy. The erosion of its regional influence, the defeat of its proxy network, and the growing threat of domestic uprisings have only deepened the clerics’ reliance on nuclear capability as a tool of deterrence and control. The expectation that Tehran might compromise under pressure or negotiate in good faith is a dangerous illusion. Decades of engagement have shown that every concession only fuels the regime’s aggression and prolongs its grip on power.
The real path to non-proliferation in Iran does not run through political or economic concessions. Political pressure and economic sanctions are important, but ultimately the real path to non-proliferation runs through regime change from within by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance, which can ensure a future free from nuclear blackmail, regional destabilization, and domestic tyranny. Anything less merely preserves the status quo: a regime armed with centrifuges and missiles, ruling through fear at home and fire abroad.