![\"photo_2022-09-20_08-23-04\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/photo_2022-09-20_08-23-04.jpg\" "\\"photo_2022-09-20_08-23-04\\"")
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By: Alejo Vidal-Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n Iran has now been undergoing a nationwide uprising for more than a month. The longevity, intensity, and scale of those protests have all seemingly come as a surprise to Western leaders, who have a long and unfortunate history of underestimating the Iranian people\u2019s outrage and the Iranian regime\u2019s vulnerability<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now there are more and more policymakers and analysts in Europe and the United States who are coming around to the realization that this uprising could lead directly to a new revolution and the ouster of the mullah\u2019s dictatorship. But questions remain about whether the European Union or its member states will actually change their foreign policy to align with this newfound recognition of the potential for Iranians to chart a new future for themselves.<\/p>\n It bears mentioning that some Western policymakers already recognized that potential many years ago. And if you were to ask for reactions from among them, you would find very few expressions of surprise regarding the current trajectory of developments inside Iran. For instance, a politically diverse group of Members of the European Parliament, the Friends of a Free Iran, have long advocated for more assertive Western policies on the understanding that this would assist the Iranian people in achieving their long-frustrated goal of regime change.<\/p>\n Recently, FoFI issued a statement<\/a>, signed by more than 170 European lawmakers, which states in no uncertain terms that \u201cthe prospect of change in Iran has never been this accessible,\u201d and that \u201cit is time to recognize the right of the Iranian people to defend themselves and to overthrow this regime and to establish a free and democratic Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n That statement recognized that the current uprising has spread to 170 cities and 45 universities in all of Iran\u2019s 31 provinces and that the movement is being led by women and the nation\u2019s youth. The statement also noted that \u201cResistance Units and the organized opposition are taking serious risks to play a vital role in organizing and sustaining these protests,\u201d as they have done in the context of several other nationwide uprisings since the end of 2017 alone.<\/p>\n In January 2018, amidst the first in the still-ongoing series of uprisings, none other than the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged the challenges that his own regime was facing from the organized opposition<\/a>, namely the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK). That longstanding pro-democracy group, he said, had \u201cplanned for months\u201d to facilitate nationwide unrest and to popularize such provocative, anti-government slogans as \u201cdeath to the dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n Those same slogans are being repeated even now in the context of an uprising that began with expressions of popular outrage over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Tehran\u2019s \u201cmorality police.\u201d<\/a> The breadth and uniformity of this messaging are indicative of the public\u2019s appetite for regime change, as well as the opposition\u2019s role in making each new uprising contiguous with its predecessors.<\/p>\n Las protestas y las manifestaciones en Ir\u00e1n no cejan y van in crescendo. El r\u00e9gimen se muestra impotente para ahogar las exigencias de democracia y libertad de los ciudadanos, que salen en masa a la calle pese a la brutal represi\u00f3n. Ojala caiga pronto esta dictadura criminal.<\/p>\n — Alejo Vidal-Quadras (@VidalQuadras) October 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n