Iran International:

Iranian activist and Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi said on Tuesday that there was no prospect for reforming the country's Islamic theocracy and its downfall was assured.

“Reform has been dead for years. The time for reforms has long passed. The real main struggle is between the realistic survivalists and those seeking the end of religious despotic regime,” Mohammadi posted on X on Tuesday.

“As a human rights defender and peace advocate and fundamentally based on the criteria of peace and human rights, I believe in a transition and am working to end the Islamic Republic as a religious despotic regime,” she added. “Victory is not easy, but it is certain.”

Mohammadi criticized talk of reform, calling it fruitless. “Our pact is freedom, democracy, and equality, whose key step is ending religious tyranny,” she said.

Iran's reform movement began in the 1990s under President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and sought to promote civil liberties, press freedom and dialogue after years of hardline policies.

It peaked with the 2009 Green Movement protests led by reformist candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory.

Security forces crushed it with lethal violence, killing dozens and arresting thousands, stifling momentum.

In 2013 and 2017, moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani backed by sidelined reformists persuaded voters to choose him as what was widely called the “better of the two evils,” warning that electing another hardline Ahmadinejad-style president would be disastrous.

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