The Revolutionary Option Against the Counter – Revolutionary Shift of the Islamic Regime in Iran – Abbas Mansouran

*** This war must end; not by surrendering to an external enemy, but by the Islamic regime surrendering to the will of the people. Every minute it continues, more victims and tragedies fall among the peoples of Iran, Palestine, Israel, and the region. *** Within the reactionary war among states, the prospect of free life can be created. Across Iran, the experience of the Communards and the uprising people of Rojava in northern and eastern Syria since 2012—who, through the creation of councilism and heroic defense against ISIS, “jihadists of darkness,” and the fascism of Turkey and Syria, have established a great model of self-management—can be recreated, especially in Kurdistan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Sistan and Baluchestan, and some other regions.

Global imperialism has long sought to create another “Sykes-Picot” and “Lausanne” to redraw power relations in the Middle East. The ongoing global war, focused on Ukraine and the Middle East, is only a part of the battle between global powers for control over markets, resources, and cheap labor. The vital need of neoliberalism—the order and disorder of capital—to restructure accumulation frameworks and contain crises, the ongoing global war centered in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the clash of powers over the redistribution of resource geography and markets are merely a manifestation of the “wolfish struggle.” The occupying diplomacy of World War I, with the participation of France, Britain, and Tsarist Russia, paved the way for the creation of artificial nation-states, including Israel, on the basis of the partition of Kurdistan and the Middle East.

Now, that same diplomacy is being reproduced under a new guise. Just as Al-Qaeda and ISIS jihadists, supported by the Turkish army, the emirs of Qatar, and the oil sheikhs, appear anew wearing suits and ties while being tools of capital’s repressive order, talking of “human rights” and “civil society,” a similar deceptive option is emerging for post-Islamic Republic Iran. “Human rights” that deny human rights, and “civil society” which has become the third pillar of the nation-state order and an instrument of structural repression, now serve modern slavery aligned with redrawing borders and nation-states of the region. This is a response to the demands of capital accumulation and the containment of structural crises of the global system.

The Islamic regime, as a proxy force of global capital, which for decades has advanced the interests of rival empires through internal repression, external expansionism, and state terrorism, now with access to missile and nuclear weapons, has lost legitimacy, efficiency, and no longer guarantees the interests of global blocs or Israel’s existence. This criminal regime, whose leaders are immersed in chronic corruption and depravity, through nuclear adventurism and forbidden weapons, has pushed the lives of 90 million Iranians and the region’s ecosystem to the brink. The danger of producing or using “dirty” bombs— amalgams of uranium, plutonium, and radiation—has never been more threatening.

Nearly fifty years of reign marked by massacre, torture, and repression by ruling factions, contrasted against half a century of bloody and relentless resistance by women, workers, students, the oppressed, petitioners, retirees, mothers of freedom, and the vanguard of society in the streets, culminating in the nationwide uprisings of 2017, 2019, and the eruption of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) revolution since September 2022, have brought society to the threshold of a final reckoning with the Islamic regime. At this turning point, Israel, relying on its survival project and racist ideology, and backed by international institutions and aggressive policies, has sought to appropriate the achievements of the Iranian people’s movement.

The October 7, 2025, war has been turned into an opportunity for strategic deterrence, shifting the balance of power, and preparing the ground for its desired regime change in Iran. The June 12, 2025, attack on the Islamic regime’s military and nuclear centers was a step towards eliminating the regime’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Gaza. But this war, while it may lead to the regime’s collapse, will not by itself lead to society’s freedom. The familiar scenarios of Iraq, Libya, and Syria are being reconstructed in Iran, this time with new faces and a repeated mission. Mainstream media, with a tone of propaganda, are reenacting the 1979 upprising in a new guise. On June 12, 2025, Israel launched its historic assault on nuclear sites, strategic military bases, and the Islamic regime’s repression command. This offensive continues the domino collapse of the regime’s proxies in the region—from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Popular Mobilization Forces, Alawites, Fatemiyoun, Zainabiyoun, Assad’s Syria, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Houthis, and terror squads worldwide.

In the ongoing war, neutralizing these tentacles of the “world-consuming octopus” is the aim of this military strategy, which seeks to remove the regime and prepare the preferred alternative. This reactionary war between regimes, even if initially aimed at deterrence, inevitably leads to the collapse of the Islamic regime in Iran. The essential question remains: Will this war lead to society’s freedom? Or will a pre-designed reactionary scenario merely bring about a power shift and a continuation of exploitative and class relations? Dominant media, with the trumpet of overthrow propaganda, have staged a new show with the old 1979 theme.

The scenario of Iraq, Libya, Syria—this time in Iran, differently arranged but with the same mission! Amid this, the active and interventionist presence of the “third force”—that is, the people, the governed—is the only guarantee for realizing the third option: the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic regime and the establishment of revolutionary, liberating, and council-based relations. Maintaining the status quo means preserving predatory relations and continuing past exploitation, misery, and the “Realization of society.” This continuation serves financial and political empires and aims to contain the structural crises of global capitalism that have driven the earth to the brink of destruction.

This reactionary war, devastating the existence and ecosystem of the Middle Eastern people, is driven by the leadership factions, Revolutionary Guards, rent-seekers, brokers, lumpen elements, and government parasites at the cost of the lives and livelihoods of real producers—women, workers, the poor, child laborers, and migrant workers. The negotiation and diplomacy show desired by the White House and Trump are only a cover to prepare the final blow to the Fordow nuclear center, arranging the appropriate alternative for Iran’s future—a first step that includes royalist factions and simultaneously provides Israel with an opportunity for crushing assaults to ensure smooth surrender and handover.

This war must end; not by surrendering to an external enemy, but by the Islamic regime surrendering to the will of the people. Every minute it continues, more victims and tragedies fall among the peoples of Iran, Palestine, Israel, and the region. Under the fire of bombs from both sides, vigilance and solidarity are necessary; and one must not be deceived by street calls from opportunists lying in wait. Women and the oppressed of cities and villages, with the experience of February 1979 and its continuation in the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution, know how to organize councils, seize the streets and strategic centers, to protect society, safeguard themselves, and establish new relations and bonds. The networks of popular mutual aid and local councils, which have sprouted across Iran in recent years with initial experiences during crises and movements, are vital foundations for managing the crisis of war and revolutionary transition.

Experiences of Self-Management and Council Institutions: Foundations of the Revolution Popular mutual aid institutions and local councils, which have sprouted across Iran in recent years through initial experiences in crises and movements, are vital foundations for managing the crisis of war and revolutionary transition. Examples of these structures include:

• Local relief and medical committees: These groups operated independently and locally during natural disasters (such as earthquakes in Anzali, Bam, Kermanshah, and floods in Khuzestan) and during suppression of the uprisings of 2017, 2019, and 2022, delivering medicine, first aid, psychological care, and emergency shelter. • Networks of volunteer educators and teachers: In conditions of repression and educational poverty, these networks provided free education in marginalized and remote areas. • Local credit funds: In neighborhoods, with participation from women and local workers, these funds were established to provide medicine, food, treatment, and emergency livelihood support.

• Local defense groups and neighborhood committees: Especially in Kurdish areas, these groups, reminiscent of the 1978/79 experiences, have accumulated years of resistance and solidarity against repression from 1979 through the 2017, 2019 uprisings and the 2022 uprising. • Networks supporting child laborers, female-headed households, and migrant workers.

• Networks protecting ecosystems, environment, and local natural resources: Including community groups in the wetland and forest areas of northern Iran, which have maintained water, soil, wildlife, and forests in the absence of state protection. • Solidarity networks in relief operations: Including the deployment of aid vehicles to help stranded people and transport individuals in war-affected areas. These experiences form the basis for establishing independent councils, local congresses, and self-management structures, which in the current wartime conditions must expand and link together. This war, from both sides, takes its main victims from women, children, workers, and real producers. Organizing popular networks to support war victims, the injured, refugees, and the ecosystem is essential. Organization: • Local committees for care and rescue of the wounded and injured • Local health and medical networks • Support mechanisms for children, elderly, and affected women • Food, medicine, and education distribution networks • Participatory funds to support survivors and local reconstruction Wherever organization is possible, without delay, with will, awareness, and collective wisdom, council mechanisms, collective defense, and joint self-management of women and men must be established.

This is the only path that leads to freedom, not merely changing the face of the prison. The reactionary rule, in continuation of its dominance, has taken societies hostage. Women and the oppressed are the primary hostages and must rise themselves; through council organization and conscious will to take control of their destiny. This self-liberation, especially in Kurdistan, rejecting nationalism and party rule, and towards council and popular management, is a decisive duty. The governed—from Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, Arabs, Gilaks, Mazenis, Lors, Azeris, Persians, and others—must not be forced to choose between two ruinous options.

The solidarity of forces grounded in the vision of socialism and confederal, council-based selfmanagement is the only true path toward building a new future. The formation of a new state-nation—under any guise, whether constitutional monarchy, republic, or federalism—will be nothing but a repetition of historical captivity. The example of Kurdistan in Iraq and Damascus makes this clear—especially in a land like Iran, shattered by Asiatic despotism. The nations, ethnicities, and peoples of Iran must not be made to choose between despotism and a manufactured, imposed alternative. The horizon of liberation lies in the paradigm and vision of the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement—in the realization of revolutionary overthrow and the establishment of self-management based on free life, labor, and social production. This victory hinges upon the sisterly and brotherly solidarity of workers, women, laboring people, and all nations and cultures through councils of cities and villages, and congresses of councils. Revolutionary workers, the convergence of freedom-seeking forces, progressive parties, women’s movements, oppressed peoples, and all suppressed identities—this is the path to victory. * While this statement was being sent for publication, in the early hours of June 22nd, American bunker-buster bombers attacked and destroyed the nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow. With the US army’s entry into the war, the course of the conflict, as predicted, has now shifted to a different phase.

__________ Dr Abbas Mansouran is an Iranian-born epidemiologist based in Sweden. His humanitarian work began during the Iraq War in the 1980s, focusing on trauma and bacteriology. Over the years, he has extended his research efforts to northern and eastern Syria, conducting independent studies on the region’s health conditions, particularly the impact of ongoing conflicts on civilian populations.