TEHRAN – The ailing Iranian “opposition” factions based in the West—those who were either toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution or failed to compete with the popularity of Imam Khomeini and his followers for a place in the country’s new political establishment—have spent nearly five decades in exile.
During this time, they have lived largely on nostalgia and resentment, along with the millions they siphoned from the nation, fantasizing about a day when they might return to Iran, exact revenge on their old rivals en masse, and reclaim power as the selfproclaimed “rulers” of the country.
For some of these figures, anti-Iran activism is no longer driven by just ideology or conviction. Opposing the Islamic Republic—and organizing, lobbying, and agitating for its eventual overthrow—has simply become a profession. It is how they pay their bills. They move comfortably through American, Israeli, and European political and media circles, requesting “funds” that are allegedly meant to advance the cause of dismantling the Iranian state.
Alongside these two groups exists a third category of Iranians in the West who, knowingly or not, align themselves with them. These individuals are mostly Iran-born and left the country in pursuit of Western promises of “freedom” and “prosperity.” They live ordinary lives, hold ordinary jobs, and often struggle to make ends meet in an unforgiving, highly competitive environment—conditions far harsher than what many of them experienced in Iran. This group is particularly vulnerable to manipulation by the first two.
When they were told last month to join rallies in Western cities such as Munich and Toronto to demand “freedom” for Iranians, they complied. When questioned by people of other nationalities about why they were openly calling on Donald Trump to bomb their homeland, they responded that the U.S. president would “only target the Islamic Republic.” When reminded of what American intervention did to Iraq, Syria, and Libya, they shut their ears and insisted that Iran would somehow be different.
Perhaps it took Trump himself going on social media to make it unmistakably clear: the same blueprint of death and destruction applied to Iraq—where more than a million civilians were killed, infrastructure was obliterated, terrorism flourished, and the government still lacks full sovereignty, even needing U.S. permission to access its own oil revenues—is precisely what has been planned for Iran as well.
In a long rant on Truth Social, President Donald Trump attempted to dismiss Western media reports claiming that his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has warned him against attacking Iran. Trump insisted that the decision rested with him alone—while making an admission that appeared, at least in part, unintentional.
“Numerous stories from the Fake News Media have been circulating stating that General Daniel Caine, sometimes referred to as Razin, is against us going to War with Iran,” Trump wrote. Further down in the post, he added: “I am the one that makes the decision. I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people, because they are great and wonderful, and something like this should never have happened to them.”
Trump’s renewed talk of attacking Iran first came in early January, months after his first military confrontation with the country in June 2025 failed to achieve any of its objectives. At the time, Iran was facing one of the most serious waves of unrest and terrorism it had experienced since the 1980s.
The January unrest began as peaceful demonstrations by bazaar merchants protesting the rapid collapse of the Iranian rial—a collapse that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later acknowledged was engineered by Washington through the deliberate creation of a “dollar shortage.” For several days, the protests remained calm. That changed when the son of the deposed Shah called on his “supporters” to take to the streets and overthrow the government. Soon after, armed and masked individuals – recruited and trained by the CIA – emerged, killing both security personnel and civilians and setting parts of several cities ablaze.
As these groups were quickly identified and arrested, Trump turned to social media to urge further escalation. He openly encouraged violence, calling on people to “take over your institutions” and promising that “help is on the way.” That same “help” is now what he says would end very “badly” for the Iranian people.
Interestingly, the “help” promised to the Iranian people is being delivered by individuals who appear unable to help themselves. Recent reports indicate that one of the two aircraft carriers Trump has dispatched to the Persian Gulf for potential attacks on Iran—the nuclear powered USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship in the U.S. Navy—is struggling with basic functionality.Onboard the carrier, it has reportedly become difficult to find a working toilet. More than 4,500 sailors are forced to wait in lines of up to 45 minutes simply to relieve themselves, as a sewage system in urgent need of repair has rendered many restrooms unusable. The ship’s extended deployment—now entering its eighth month—has also taken a growing psychological toll on the crew.
Trump’s latest remarks are unlikely to alter calculations within Iran’s political and military leadership. Tehran has repeatedly signaled that it is prepared to inflict serious costs on the United States in the event of an attack—ranging from closing the Strait of Hormuz to striking U.S. bases, targeting American naval assets, and launching sustained attacks on Israel—regardless of whether diplomatic talks in Geneva this Thursday produce a breakthrough.
What the remarks do make clear is that certain segments of the Iranian diaspora who believed they were helping their compatriots by marching in Western cities and calling for bombs to fall on Iran had, in reality, become part of a propaganda campaign used to help Washington justify its potential aggression against Iran—and the blood that such aggression would spill. Death and destruction were always the outcome of these demands. If history has failed to make that lesson clear, Trump’s own words now do.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
