Speaking at the Free Iran Convention 2025 in Washington, D.C., former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a forceful address emphasizing that Iran’s democratic future will be secured from within, powered by its organized Resistance and the determination of its people. Commending Maryam Rajavi’s leadership and the NCRI’s decades-long efforts, Pompeo argued that the Iranian regime is now weaker, more isolated, and more illegitimate than at any point in its history.
He reviewed the regime’s domestic failures—from economic collapse and endemic corruption to its reliance on fear and violent repression—and pointed to its diminishing influence across the region, including setbacks in Lebanon, Syria, and its reduced nuclear threat. Pompeo stressed that while the exact timing of the regime’s fall is unpredictable, its collapse is inevitable, just as the fall of other authoritarian systems once seemed impossible until the moment they suddenly crumbled.
He urged the United States and Europe to reject appeasement, intensify pressure, and support Iran’s internal opposition rather than engaging or funding the regime. Emphasizing that Iran’s future must be defined by its own people, Pompeo described the goal as a democratic, popular republic—“not a theocracy, not a monarchy, not an oppressive regime”—underscoring that the alternative to the current system is neither a return to past autocracy nor the continuation of clerical rule, but a sovereign government chosen by Iranians themselves.
Excerpts of Mike Pompeo’s speech follow:
Thank you all for that incredibly gracious welcome. It is wonderful to be again amongst so many dear friends, so many fellow believers in the future of a free Iran. It is great to be with you.
And what an inspiring speech by my friend, Madam Rajavi. It’s a privilege to follow her. And more than follow her, I want to take up precisely where she left us all. This is about forward.
We know the history. Today, in my remarks, I want to spend a bit of time recounting where we find ourselves today and talk mostly about where we all pray we will find ourselves tomorrow: a nation that has arisen from inside. A nation that has arisen from inside to oust a regime that is illegitimate and to build a place where all people of all genders can flourish and succeed and have the freedom that each of them so richly deserves.
And it is thanks to the bravery of Iran’s organized political opposition that the opportunity that I just spoke of is real, that this positive change and liberation of the Iranian people can happen and will happen.
Look, we all know a few basic facts. This regime is weak. You can see it. It is more internationally isolated than ever. Those of you who have friends or family who are there know that the situation on the ground for the Iranian people today is difficult. We also know that there is zero popular legitimacy of this regime and that it now has resorted, as it has for the past years but even more today, to using fear as its only tool to shape. We saw that in the brutal suppression in 2022.
At #FreeIranConvention2025, @mikepompeo: “Everyone in this room knows precisely that there is an alternative: a free and independent sovereign Iran delivered to it by its own people.” #NCRIAlternative @ResistanceUnits pic.twitter.com/SOjiK1Po3c
— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) November 15, 2025
The economy is in shambles, mismanagement, poisonous corruption, a regime that would simply rather take wealth than build it, destroy the resources of a great country, and whose leaders have zero, no desire for the future for the Iranian people.
But it’s interesting to watch this regime fail. We’ve seen it fail now in Lebanon. Hezbollah, not gone, but reduced to impotence, a shadow of what it once was. Lebanese leadership needs to move forward and use this opportunity as a chance to deliver good outcomes for the people that are living there.
In Syria, a regime that has collapsed, an evil dictator like Assad no longer in control, but now the people of Syria are faced with a stark choice: [Sunni], the Druze, the Kurds, the Alawites, right? Different backgrounds, Muslims that live in the region. Do they want to build a Syria based on a foundation of freedom and prosperity, equality for each individual? Or will they return to a model that has so poorly served them for so many years?
And, of course, an Iranian nuclear program that no longer threatens the world in the same way it did just several months back. That does matter. Too many Western nations cowered in the face of that nuclear capability, of that nuclear power. And while it is never fair to say that the Iranian regime’s nuclear capabilities have been totally destroyed or defeated, it is absolutely fair to say today that its capabilities to regenerate, to deliver that threat, to have air defense systems that could protect their capabilities is massively diminished.
Sec Pompeo joined Free Iran Convention in DC
Thank you @mikepompeo #FreeIran2025 pic.twitter.com/QjdBxLxbYQ
— Iranian-American Community of Pennsylvania (@IAC_PA) November 15, 2025
I’ll bet you all get asked the same question I get asked: “Mike, you’ve been at this a long time. When is this rotten regime going to fall?” And they’re looking for me to give them a date. “Oh, it’ll be next Wednesday, about noon,” or a month from now or a year from now. These questions are impossible to answer. We know only of the certainty of its failure.
It’s great I see some young people here today. A bunch of old folks like me here, too. You young people may not remember as much of what I’ve lived through. I served the United States Army. I patrolled the East German border. The East German people were terrorized by the Stasi inside of their own country. And the Soviet Union that looked corrupt. It looked dangerous, and it looked to be in power for some time. Nobody could answer the central question. We all knew that the Soviet Union would fall. But, “Mike, you’re a young lieutenant patrolling that border. When will it fall?” The date was unpredictable, but it came with unbelievable speed. Out of nowhere, these rotten regimes fail. We only know that the requirement is internal resistance to force that moment to come more readily and sooner, and I’m confident that we are well on our path to that.
Does anyone in this room remember who predicted the Syrian regime’s moment of failure? No. We don’t predict these moments. They happen. They happen through dedication and hard work. They are not accidents of history. They are the work of people like you and Madam Rajavi and NCRI who help and deliver the capabilities so that the Resistance can grow and be prepared for the moment that that day comes.
As Secretary @mikepompeo notes, the propaganda machine dismisses the 30,000 massacred in 1988 and ignores the work Iran’s Resistance has carried out inside the country, preparing for the day freedom prevails. The roadmap is clear—never easy. I’ve watched your path since your days… https://t.co/Phee8MC7HF pic.twitter.com/OiBNtunw22
— Maryam Fakhar (@MaryamSFakhar) November 15, 2025
This is important too. We should never forget that this will be a wonderful, great thing for the people of Iran, but it will be a great thing for the people of the United States of America as well. It will be great for people all across the world. A thriving, democratic, popular government in Iran—not a theocracy, not a monarchy, not an oppressive regime. This will be a great thing for the entire world. We are waiting for that day, and it will be a blessing to us all.
Three more thoughts for you. Madam Rajavi spoke about appeasement as failure. We see that in Europe today. If you appease tyrants, they will grow in power and stature, and they will prolong the time until a regime falls. Pallets of cash delivered from the West only enable the brutalization of the opposition inside of these countries. It fuels terrorism, it funds global risk, and it gives the regime money to continue its effort to deliver on its objectives, not the objectives of the people of Iran.
Anybody who speaks about a regime in Iran as, “Well, it’s the only solution,” doesn’t understand basic human dignity and the fundamental objectives that we must all share: to embolden and empower and support the opposition inside of Iran so that its day will come quickly.
.@mikepompeo at the #FreeIranConvention2025 in Washington, D.C.: "A thriving, democratic, popular government in Iran—not a theocracy, not a monarchy—will be a great thing for the entire world. We are waiting for that day, and it will be a blessing to us all." pic.twitter.com/d5IjKQtKbL
— Ehsan Eghbal Eslami (@Ehsaneghbale) November 15, 2025
The isolation of the regime was something I spent a great deal of my time in government service focused on. The more that we could starve the regime of its money was to the good. The more that we could starve it of any credibility was to its detriment. And the more that we could starve it of any moral authority was an absolute imperative. There are many tools still available to all of us. The snapback of sanctions against the buyers of Iranian oil would deny Iran the capability to do what we all know it is intent upon doing. It wants to rebuild Hamas. It wants to rebuild Hezbollah. It is still funding the militias in Iraq that had a real impact on an election that was held this past week. This empowers and builds friends for the Ayatollah and his henchmen, the IRGC. We must deny them wealth and resources.
We know too that what was built in the first Trump administration, which became known as the Abraham Accords, has now expanded by one country, begins to build a basic framework, a model that can deliver for not just Iran, but for the entire region. We must build out the friendships with Arab countries who too want to see the Iranian regime fail. The leaders in the region know that the great risk does not come from the United States. It does not come from Israel. It sits in Tehran. The leadership of Tehran still, to this day, hosts the Al Qaeda leadership in its city. We know that that empowers them. We all must work against their continued capacity to host terrorists and extremists and then to foist that terror upon Europe and the world.
I call upon my European colleagues and friends: Do not fall for the storyline that there is no alternative. Everyone in this room knows precisely that there is an alternative: a free and independent, sovereign Iran delivered to it by its own people. The democratic alternative that Madam Rajavi and so many of you have been working towards and have demonstrated its capability now for forty-odd years knows the history, but it too is totally prepared for the day that we have the opportunity to move forward.
From @mikepompeo at #FreeIranConvention2025: “We all know a few basic facts, right? This regime is weak…It is more internationally isolated than ever.” And: “These rotten regimes fail.”
His message: Tehran’s theocracy is on borrowed time. #NCRIAlternative pic.twitter.com/hbTC3qkJZI
— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) November 15, 2025
We know that the propaganda machine dismisses the 30,000 people who were massacred in 1988. We know that they dismiss all the work that the Resistance has done inside of Iran preparing itself for that day. Look, the road map that has been laid out is clear. It is straightforward. It is one that, as an American who has studied American history knows, is a fraught path. It is never an easy one. But the people who stand strong in the moment can deliver a free nation. It can deliver a republic. And sometimes that republic will last two hundred and fifty years, and I pray another two hundred and fifty years. I’m rooting for the same thing for the people of Iran.
I have observed the NCRI in my time in Congress, my time as CIA director, my time as Secretary of State, and now my time as an American civilian. I’ve watched everything that this organization has done, and I’ve watched what it has not done. It didn’t ask for American boots on the ground inside of Iran. It didn’t ask for an external change of regime. It didn’t ask the West to do anything more but support the Iranian opposition and put pressure on the regime so that the day that it reaches its ultimate demise comes more quickly and more certainly. That’s all that’s ever been asked. That’s precisely how revolutions take place. That’s precisely how governments are overthrown. It’s precisely the reason that existing theocratic, oppressive, terrorist regimes will one day meet their ultimate end.
So, what are we going to do? How are we going to bring this forward? The focus of my remarks today: forward. How do we deliver this forward? And for those of you who have lost loved ones or family members to this brutal regime, we should never forget the history. And the importance of moving forward is predicated on our recollection, our honoring those people who have lost family or loved ones to the regime’s brutality. You will always be in my prayers and that of my family, and you will always be in my thoughts as I think about the way to deliver the outcome that the people of Iran so richly deserve.
At #FreeIranConvention2025, @MikePompeo: “It is thanks to the bravery of Iran's organized political opposition that…this positive change in liberation of the Iranian people can happen and will happen.” @ResistanceUnits #NCRIAlternative pic.twitter.com/6jJusS5c5c
— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) November 15, 2025
Hang together. Stay together. Be together as a community. Come together on a Saturday afternoon when you could have been doing many things to remind ourselves of the task that we have before us and the good work that we can do to support the opposition inside of the country. Speak out. Speak out consistently and from your heart and with a conviction in the knowledge that you are right and that your goal, your objective will one day be achieved.
The just, God-given right of all human beings, to live in a free and prosperous society will one day find its roots inside Iran. I know that it will. It is our solemn duty to help deliver that. I pray that our leaders in the West, here in the United States and elsewhere, will take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity that presents itself today to support the Iranian people in their aspirations for freedom. And I have every confidence that before too long, I will get the chance to be with you, and we will get to hear from an Iranian leadership duly selected, elected by the people of Iran.
What a glorious day that will be. And when that day happens, Iran will take its rightful place among those nations that respect basic human dignity. And on that day, Iran will take its place with a set of leaders that respect the basic fundamental rights of every parent to raise their children in the way that they so choose, for every teacher to educate their children about the things that matter most, and for every community in Iran to set its own course.
The aspirations run deep. The work that you have done to date is powerful. Thank you for that. May God bless you. May God bless Madam Rajavi and God bless the great people of Iran. Thank you all so very much.