Ghadiani Responds to Khamenei's Statement: The Only Way Out of the Deadlock is the Resistance of All Political Forces

Abulfazl Ghadiani, a political activist, analyzed the recent statement by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asserting that the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic "will not submit to reform" and that the only solution to exit this "deadlock" is the "unified resistance" of all political factions so that "the hardship of tyranny breaks and submits to a nationwide referendum for changing the ruling system." In a piece on the Kalemeh website, Ghadiani described Khamenei's statement, issued on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the February 1979 Revolution, as "filled with slogans, generalizations, tedious repetitions, and astonishing lies about freedom, spirituality, social justice, and ethics," similar to the main thesis of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, which states that "lies should be told in a bigger way to appear more truthful, causing opponents to doubt when they deny it." Khamenei claimed that the Islamic Revolution has been "powerful yet kind and forgiving, even oppressed," and that "from the beginning until today, it has neither been ruthless and bloodthirsty nor passive and hesitant." In response, Ghadiani wrote: "It requires strange audacity for a tyrant whose repressive forces and injustice apparatus have arrested and imprisoned thousands of protesting citizens in just the past year to claim freedom, spirituality, social justice, and ethics." He also noted that Khamenei is willing to show "flexibility and submission" to "foreign powers" but will not "reconsider" in front of his own people. On July 6, Ghadiani stated that the "effective solution" to Iran's problems is the removal of the Supreme Leader, addressing reformists who "seek to reform matters while maintaining a corrupt and defective structure," stating that they are "either not reformists at all or are merely nurturing an impossible dream." He reiterated that Khamenei does not intend to "set aside tyranny and the situation in the country will continue to turn on the same axis." According to Ghadiani, "the plundering of national wealth and the suppression of individual and political freedoms will continue" and "there will still be no news of freedom of expression and writing, political parties, and protest gatherings." He identified the solution to this "deadlock" as the "unified resistance of political forces, including republicans, reformists, and transformation-seekers," so that "the hardship of tyranny breaks and submits to a nationwide referendum for changing the ruling system." He emphasized: "The ruling system does not submit to reform and its legal and actual structure is not such that it can be reformed. It must be forced to accept structural reform through resistance and steadfastness, whether through reform or by holding a referendum." In conclusion, Ghadiani declared his desired government to be a "secular democratic republic of Iran." He is among the signatories of a statement by 15 political and civil activists in 2017, emphasizing the "unreformability" of the Islamic Republic's government and calling for a UN-supervised referendum for a "peaceful transition" from the current government "to a parliamentary secular democracy." Ghadiani, a senior member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, was arrested after the protests of 2009 and imprisoned for a year. He was again sentenced in 2012 to two years in prison and 40 lashes.