Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, recently warned, “Any mischief the U.S. does will surely receive a strong reciprocal blow.” It may be the most unintentionally absurd April Fools' joke of the year.

President Trump, who has long sounded the alarm over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, didn’t mince words in response. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing — the likes of which they have never seen before,” he said. Days earlier, the president warned that if Tehran refused to negotiate a new nuclear agreement, “bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”

Anyone with a basic grasp of military power knows the Iranian regime would be hopelessly outmatched in a direct conflict with the United States. A well-executed U.S. strike could dismantle Iran’s nuclear facilities and cripple the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, its command-and-control networks, air defenses, and naval forces.

The recent deployment of U.S. B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean wasn’t just a routine maneuver. It was a clear and unmistakable signal to Tehran: Test America’s resolve, and the consequences will be swift and overwhelming.

Target the head of the snake

Since October 7, 2023, the Middle East has descended into chaos. The lesson is now unmistakable: Real peace and security in the region require confronting the source of the violence — the Iranian regime.

The Biden administration’s policy of appeasement gave Tehran room to maneuver. It exploited Western concessions, ramped up its nuclear program, and expanded its influence across the region. Intelligence from the National Council of Resistance of Iran — the same group that first revealed Iran’s covert nuclear sites at Natanz and Arak in 2002 — reported in February that Tehran is now actively developing nuclear warheads for ballistic missiles.

At the same time, the regime continues to export terror. Iran arms, trains, and funds the Houthis, who have repeatedly attacked commercial shipping and disrupted trade in the Red Sea.

President Trump pursued a different path: maximum pressure. His administration imposed crippling sanctions and eliminated waivers that helped drive Iran’s oil exports toward zero. More recently, Trump warned that if Iran refuses to negotiate, “There’s a chance that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”

This kind of pressure works. But economic force alone isn’t enough. It must be matched with steadfast support for the Iranian people and their resistance movement — those willing to fight for freedom from within.

Ready resistance

Internal dissent remains the most viable path to ending Iran’s theocratic government. Since December 2017, Iran has witnessed at least four major uprisings — each one larger, more diverse, and more threatening to the regime’s grip on power. The most significant was the 2022 revolt, when protesters chanted, “Down with the oppressor, whether the Shah or the Supreme Leader.”

That message couldn’t have been clearer: The Iranian people reject dictatorship in all its forms. They want a secular, democratic republic.

The Resistance Units — a national network affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran — carried out more than 3,000 anti-regime operations in the past year alone. These efforts persisted despite mass arrests, torture, and executions. The network is growing, not shrinking. It is the only organized force inside Iran capable of challenging the regime from within.

At the same time, Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has offered a clear plan for a free Iran. Her 10-point platform calls for secular governance, universal suffrage, gender equality, individual freedoms, and a non-nuclear state. That vision has earned the public backing of more than 4,000 lawmakers worldwide — including a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the British House of Commons.

Speaking before Congress in February, Rajavi made NCRI’s position clear. It doesn’t want foreign troops, weapons, or money. It wants recognition of the Iranian people’s right to resist tyranny and of the Resistance Units’ fight to dismantle the IRGC’s machinery of repression.

What the West can do

Military options must remain on the table. But the most effective way to defeat Iran’s regime is to cut off its financial lifelines and escalate pressure across all fronts.

A serious strategy should include the following:

• Strangle the regime’s economy. Block Iran’s oil and gas exports to starve its terrorist proxies, missile programs, and nuclear ambitions of funding.
• Activate the U.N. snapback mechanism. Reimpose all prior U.N. Security Council resolutions, shutting down the regime’s nuclear program in full.
• Place the regime under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter. Its repeated threats and destabilizing activities clearly qualify as threats to international peace and security.
• Recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist. Publicly support the organized resistance movement and the Resistance Units battling the IRGC inside Iran.

The time for action is now

The Iranian regime is at its weakest point in decades. Its economy is collapsing, regional allies are facing setbacks, and internal dissent is growing. The international community has a unique opportunity to push the regime to the brink. The Iranian New Year, which began on March 20, could mark the start of historic change in the Middle East.

An Iran free from the mullahs is no longer a distant dream — it is within reach. But to make it a reality, the West must act decisively and stand with the Iranian people, not their oppressors.