Three-minute read
As the Iranian regime faces mounting internal crises and international pressure, its leadership has retreated into a familiar pattern of behavior: escalating threats of terrorism, naval blockades, and regional chaos. Recent statements from the highest echelons of Iran’s ruling establishment reveal a desperate yet dangerous strategy of using global security as a bargaining chip.
Threatening the Arteries of Global Trade
The Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for global energy, remains the regime’s primary tool for extortion. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Speaker of the Parliament, recently reiterated threats to restrict movement through this waterway, claiming it is under the regime’s total control. This sentiment was echoed by Mojtaba Khamenei, who has openly called for a “new stage” of management over the Strait—a thinly veiled euphemism for taking international shipping hostage.
“We will certainly not leave the criminal aggressors who attacked our country unpunished. We shall demand compensation for every single damage, as well as the blood money of the martyrs… Furthermore, the management of the Strait of Hormuz will certainly enter a new phase,” Mojataba Khamenei said in a message carried by state TV.
Adding to this maritime aggression, Ali Abdollahi of the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters warned that the regime would not allow any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, or the Red Sea if its demands are not met. This level of belligerence highlights a regime that views international law not as a standard to follow, but as a barrier to be dismantled through force.
"The #propaganda machine is running at full throttle because the regime understands how close it stands to the edge," @HakamianMahmoud writes. #IranWarhttps://t.co/9Yv1r0f8sC
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 11, 2026
The Rhetoric of Terror and “Meat Cleavers”
The regime’s mask of diplomacy often slips, revealing a core dedicated to state-sponsored violence. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a long-time theorist for the establishment, recently made a startling admission of the regime’s willingness to export murder: “We can also assassinate… if terrorism is to be started, well, we are not clumsy; we can also assassinate in [other] countries.”
This admission of “state terrorism” is complemented by the hyperbolic threats of Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, an advisor to the IRGC commander-in-chief. Naghdi boasted of “winning cards” yet to be played, including the ability to halt 15 million barrels of oil daily, crudely stating that the world’s hand is “under our meat cleaver.” Such language is not the talk of a responsible state actor; it is the vocabulary of a criminal enterprise.
"On the morning after the ceasefire, every exhausted and exasperated mind, long numbed by the #IranWar, will turn instinctively toward the search for real change and the practical means to bring this regime to an end." https://t.co/8Tmh0Sl0Kc
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 9, 2026
The Illusion of Moderation
While officials like Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Khatami attempt to frame the regime’s stance as one of “defensive power” or “sustainable peace,” their rhetoric ultimately serves the same end: the preservation of a system built on conflict. Pezeshkian’s claims of not wanting war are consistently undermined by his insistence on maintaining the same nuclear and regional policies that have fueled decades of instability. These “contradictory stances” are a calculated tactic—using the language of diplomacy to buy time for the IRGC’s military expansions.
This strategy is reflected in several areas. On the nuclear issue, the regime has shown explicit refusal to negotiate over uranium enrichment levels. Economically, it has adopted a posture of financial extortion by demanding “reparations” and “blood money” in response to international sanctions. At the regional level, it continues to pursue sabotage through the coordination of “Resistance” fronts, seeking to unify proxy forces across the region for a single offensive objective.
The World Is Paying the Price for Decades of Appeasing Tehran https://t.co/RSMuQmhqL1
— Khalil Khani (@BehroozBalouch) March 28, 2026
A History of Deception
Nearly half a century of history serves as a grim prologue to the current crisis. From the 1979 revolution to the present day, the clerical regime has proven that it cannot be trusted. Its survival depends on domestic suppression and foreign warmongering; it is a regime that views peace as a weakness and transparency as a threat.
Nearly half a century of history serves as a grim prologue to the current crisis, proving that this is a regime that will never honor its words. For decades, global policy has been clouded by wishful thinking, creating a vacuum where regime-fed experts have been enabled to manipulate policy-making and public opinion. By peddling the illusion of reform and promoting fake alternatives, these voices have effectively played into the regime’s hands, granting it the time and space to continue its belligerence. The international community must finally look past these manufactured distractions. True stability can only be realized when the Iranian people and their organized Resistance dismantle this structure of terror and achieve the fundamental change the world needs.