Iran on the Brink

Columns

Column: How to support the Iranian people—and stop an Iranian bomb

Protesters in Iran / Reuters Matthew Continetti • September 23, 2022 5:00 am

Unforeseen events have created a crisis of legitimacy within the Iranian regime. For the third time in 13 years, mass protests directed against the ruling theocrats have erupted across the country. The unrest is an opportunity for the U.S. president to address the Iranian people directly and to tell them that America is on the side of freedom. President Biden, the mic is yours.

“Today, we stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights,” Biden told the U.N. General Assembly on September 21. His words of support are welcome. But more needs to be said and done.

For those of you just tuning in: Iran has switched off the cameras that monitor its declared nuclear sites. Its nuclear centrifuges spin and spin. Its agents plotted to assassinate, on American soil, a former U.S. national security adviser and former secretary of state. Last month the decades-old fatwa of Iran’s former supreme leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, inspired a 24-year-old New Jersey man to stab author and U.S. citizen Salman Rushdie 10 times at a public event in Chautauqua, New York. Last month, Iran sent its first shipment of drones to Russian forces. The invaders and occupiers of Ukraine put the weapons to use.

These latest protests began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in state custody. The “morality police” had arrested and detained her for the crime of wearing an “improper hijab.” Widespread disgust at the official explanations and excuses for Amini’s cruel and senseless death has led hundreds of Iranian women to burn their own hijabs. Iranians of all stripes are marching in the streets in defiance of the authorities. Some call for an end to the Islamic Republic. At this writing, at least seven protesters have been killed. The government is scrambling to close social media and electronic communications. The crisis is