More than a month has passed since the signing of the newest ceasefire agreement between the United States, its mediators, and Islamic Republic regime in Iran. Yet no tangible progress towards lasting peace is visible. Violations of the agreement continue, and attacks linked to the regime have claimed the lives of American military personnel as well as other civilians. Commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz once again faces growing dangers, and the fragile ceasefire resembles more a temporary pause than a real solution.

In a recent and unusually candid interview, Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, offered a rare glimpse into the regime’s vulnerabilities. He admitted that during the recent 12-day conflict and Operation “Epic Fury,” Tehran had repeatedly stood on the brink of collapse. Communications between senior leaders and military commanders had broken down amid the chaos. Araghchi spoke of moments of deep fear and confessed that at one critical juncture, had the final leadership meeting had been held and the American strikes had been carried out, “it would have been over.” He even referred to an incident in which major cities such as Mashhad have been effectively fallen for several hours, and perhaps even several days. These admissions, delivered in Persian to a domestic audience, reveal a regime that survived not through strength, but only by the narrowest of margins from total destruction.

These repeated near-death experiences highlight a fundamental truth: the Islamic Republic is on life support. Its continued existence rests not on genuine legitimacy or popular consent, but on external appeasement and internal repression. The question therefore arises naturally: who makes this continued survival possible? The uncomfortable answer points to the same international actors, especially successive U.S. administrations, whose policies, whether through direct engagement or indirect restraint, have repeatedly rescued a regime born in the 1979 revolution and often referred to as “Project 79.”

The sustainable solution is full support........

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