No respite from the execution frenzy

Often, the population is forced to assist to the executions – a national trauma for Iranians. Foto: Amin Rahmani / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 4.0int

(KL) – One would have to publish an article about the situation in Iran almost every day, because the situation in Iran is getting worse every single day. Arbitrary arrests, executions in incredible numbers, and the mullahs and their Revolutionary Guards are spreading more and more fear and terror in the country, where, however, more and more resistance is stirring under the most dangerous conditions. Anyone who rebels against this regime runs the risk of being arrested and sentenced to death. The whole situation is escalating at a time when Iranians lack the bare necessities – the mullahs’ inability to manage the country is obvious, yet the elderly misinterpreters of the Koran continue to cling to power.

Since November 22, the mullahs have had 357 people executed, and these executions are being carried out in a targeted manner throughout the country, including public executions by hanging. In this one month, executions, including three public executions, took place in 64 cities in 31 provinces – the mullahs want the entire population to see what threatens them if they oppose the theocracy. Nevertheless, the aging rulers cannot stop the protests.

For 99 weeks now, “Tuesdays against executions” protests have been taking place throughout the country, somewhat reminiscent of the “Monday demonstrations” in the former GDR. Despite state repression, these voices can only be silenced by state terror.

This criminal regime in Tehran must be stopped. In 2025 alone, the mullahs had over 2,000 opposition members executed on flimsy charges, without mercy. The mullahs can only hold on to power through bare violence, but at the same time, they are incapable of meeting the basic needs of the population – food, water, gasoline, electricity – none of which the mullahs and their helpers can organize properly.

Yet there is an alternative that has been proposed for some time by the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) – a 10-point plan for a peaceful transition of Iran to a modern, nuclear-free, and peaceful democracy where human rights are respected. This plan now has the support of leading politicians in Europe and the US, but the question remains as to how it could be implemented in Iran.

In 2026, the international community will have to come up with something, because it is not possible to simply let the mass murderers in Tehran have their way. Expressions of solidarity are one thing, action is another. The entire arsenal of sanctions would have to be activated to put pressure on the mullahs so that the opposition can organize. The NCRI should play a decisive role in this, because no one in the West knows who to support in Iran and how to do so in order to speed up the end of the mullah regime. The NCRI has proven its credibility, and now it is time to assume an interface function between the opposition in Iran and its supporters in the West. For 2026, we can only hope that the appalling theocracy in Tehran will fall and that the great Iranian people will finally be free!