Ali Safavi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and an Iranian parliament member in exile, stated that factions within the Iranian regime throughout its four decades of rule remain unified in pursuing nuclear weapons and supporting terrorist proxies despite internal differences.
“They may differ in tactics,” Safavi said during a recent broadcast. “But strategically, they are all cut from the same cloth.”
Safavi emphasized that any divisions within Tehran’s leadership amount to minor tactical nuances rather than meaningful policy splits. “So there may be some nuances, but at the end of the day, they’re basically the same,” he added. “And interestingly, those who came to the negotiating table—the speaker of the parliament, the foreign minister—are both die-hard and veteran IRGC commanders.”
He pointed to recent developments as proof of the regime’s unchanging stance: “What happened yesterday proved what we have been saying all along—this regime will never abandon its nuclear weapons program. It will never stop funding and training its terrorist proxies. And it will not abate in suppressing the Iranian people.”
Safavi cited the execution of 13 dissidents, including six members of the main Iranian opposition group the Mujahideen last week, as evidence of ongoing repression.
Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, echoed Safavi’s assessment. “The fact of the matter is that these axis of oppression forces are still controlled by the regime itself,” he stated. “There’s still enough power that the IRGC has—and so any opposition forces really are being squashed.”
Romirowsky noted that while the regime may have suffered setbacks, its ideology remains intact. “The leadership has been ‘decapitated,’ but the ideology is still alive and well,” he said. He highlighted control of key economic routes as a critical factor: “The main concern going forward, economically speaking, is who’s controlling the Straits of Hormuz—and that is the IRGC.”
Romirowsky concluded: “So long as they’re in power, this tyrannical regime and the suppressive forces are going to continue to squash any opposition.”
