By Asqar Karimi – 08 April 2026
At the very moment the ceasefire began, the Islamic Republic resumed its usual posturing and triumphal rhetoric. These displays and declarations of “victory” are directed not outward, but inward—at the people, the real party to the deeper war: the 47-year conflict between the regime and society. A war with no ceasefire, in which the fate of the Islamic Republic will ultimately be decided.
People are deeply familiar with this rhetoric. They know that for the Islamic Republic, such posturing is essential in its confrontation with society and in its attempt to intimidate the population.
Even if this ceasefire, and the negotiations set to begin on Friday, bring an end to this particular war, people understand that as long as the Islamic Republic remains in power, neither real security will be achieved nor will the threat of future wars disappear.
Behind this rhetoric, and within these very conditions, people are preparing themselves to continue their own 47-year struggle. A struggle against a regime that has lost its leader, lost hundreds of key officials and commanders, suffered heavy blows to its military centres, become more regionally isolated than ever, and faces deeper public anger and hatred than at any time before. A regime with no way out of its crises and no ability to ease the immense economic hardships of the majority. People hold the Islamic Republic and its policies fully responsible for this war and all its consequences. They want neither its proxy forces nor its missile and nuclear programmes.
In confronting its main enemy—the people—the regime shut down the internet under the pretext of war, effectively placing society under an information blackout. It expanded executions, continued arrests and sentencing without pause, and escalated its most criminal threats against protesting citizens. Because above all, it fears the people. It knows that those who will ultimately overthrow it are not Trump or Netanyahu, but the people themselves. A people who have maintained their unity, who were not intimidated even by the horrific January massacre and the arrest of tens of thousands, and who quickly returned to protest through hundreds of memorial gatherings and demonstrations across dozens of universities. A people who recognise the regime as the source of war, poverty and repression. A people who have no ceasefire with their enemy—and who will continue their struggle until victory.
Down with the hated, criminal and broken Islamic Republic
Long live Woman, Life, Freedom
