Iranian Opposition Leader and former political prisoner Vahid Beheshti told the Middle East Forum in Congress on Thursday that the United States should strike the Iranian regime now, before Iran acquires nuclear weapons.
“The Iranian regime is weak, it’s a paper tiger,” said Beheshti. “The Iranian regime created 18 proxies around the region, but my message to the US is not to spend your time fighting proxies, aim for the head of the octopus. Israel knows that they are not fighting Hamas solely, they are fighting Iran. Without Iran, Hamas wouldn’t have survived a few weeks.
“90% of the Iranian people are against the regime. The moment Americans and their allies hit the Iranian regime, the people of Iran will rise up and finish the job.”
Addressing Iran’s role in October 7
Beheshti, who addressed Israel’s Knesset in January, told Congress that the massacre and hostage taking during Hamas’s October 7 attack was inspired by the Iranian success in gaining access to significant funds by releasing the Islamic Republic’s Western hostages.
“For four decades, the Iranian regime has taken our people hostage, forcing the West to sit around the negotiating table to provide the funds that they need,” Beheshti explained. “Three weeks before October 7th, the current US administration released $6 billion in exchange for five hostages. Of course, they will push Hamas to take 250 hostages, imagine what they can get for that many hostages.”
“The Iranian regime has a strategy to ruin the free democratic West from within, to turn our world into an Islamic state,” he added. “They use our system of democracy to weaken America and Europe by aggressive lobbying and radicalizing our youth, to turn them into the enemies of our deeply held values. This is a long-term plan.
“If we don’t defeat it now, soon it will be too late when they gain nuclear weapons capability. They will use it.”
Gregg Roman, the director of the Middle East Forum, a think tank that promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats, said “Mr. Beheshti doesn’t only talk the talk but walks the walk. We are glad to bring people like Vahid Beheshti to Washington to deliver their important mission, to push forward the people-led regime change in Iran.”