The recent ceasefire announced on June 24 has brought a pause to the direct military conflict, but it has not resolved the fundamental crisis. For years, the international community has oscillated between two failed policies toward Tehran: aggressive military threats and futile diplomatic appeasement. Both have proven to be dead ends. The ceasefire serves as a stark reminder that a genuine solution lies elsewhere—in a “Third Option” championed for decades by the Iranian Resistance, which calls for regime change driven by the Iranian people themselves.
As Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated following the ceasefire, “The proposal for a ceasefire and ending the war is a step forward for the third option: neither war nor appeasement. Let the people of Iran themselves, in the battle of destiny, bring down Khamenei and the dictatorship of velayat-e faqih.”
Welcoming the ceasefire and end of the foreign war
Reaffirming the will of the Iranian people:
freedom and victory in the battle of destiny against religious fascism
The proposal for a ceasefire and ending the war is a step forward for the third option: neither war nor… pic.twitter.com/HDu9TYKWC9— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) June 24, 2025
A prophetic warning realized
This is not a new strategy hastily conceived in a moment of crisis. It is a long-standing, principled position. Speaking at the European Parliament on June 18, Mrs. Rajavi reminded the world of a warning she issued from the same chamber over two decades ago. “Twenty-one years ago, I stood in this very parliament and declared that the solution for Iran lies neither in appeasement nor in war, but in a third option: regime change by the people of Iran and the organized resistance,” she said.
Her prediction that Western capitulation would only embolden the regime and lead to conflict has been tragically proven correct. “And today, we see that appeasement has indeed led to the imposition of war,” she affirmed. The world is now living with the consequences of ignoring that prescient warning.
The real conflict is inside Iran
International headlines often focus on the regime’s nuclear program or its regional aggression, but these are symptoms of a deeper disease. The primary conflict is the one that has raged for 44 years inside Iran’s borders. As Mrs. Rajavi stated, “At its core, the conflict is between the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance on one side, and religious tyranny on the other.”
This struggle began on June 20, 1981, when the regime violently crushed a peaceful demonstration of 500,000 people in Tehran, making it clear that no avenue for peaceful change existed. This was the start of a “battle of destiny” that has come at a “tremendous and bloody cost,” with 120,000 freedom fighters martyred, including 30,000 political prisoners massacred in 1988 for saying “no” to the theocracy. It is this internal battle for freedom, not external diplomacy, that holds the key to Iran’s future.
A credible alternative with a democratic vision
The Third Option is not a call for chaos. It is concrete plan laid out by a viable alternative with a clear democratic program: the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Founded in Tehran by Massoud Rajavi on July 21, 1981, the NCRI has a long-established platform for a free Iran. As Mrs. Rajavi stated in her message, “We seek a democratic, non-nuclear republic, with the separation of religion and state, gender equality and also autonomy for Iran’s nationalities.”
The NCRI’s detailed Ten-Point plan includes establishing a transitional government to hold free and fair elections for a National Constituent Assembly within six months of the regime’s fall. This vision stands in stark contrast to the tyranny of the mullahs and the deposed monarchy. It is a future built by and for the Iranian people.
It is time for the world to stop choosing between bad options. The international community must look beyond the false dichotomy of war and appeasement and see the reality on the ground in Iran. The only path to lasting peace and stability is to stand with the Iranian people and their organized Resistance, which includes a vast network of Resistance Units inside Iran. As Mrs. Rajavi has called for, it is time “to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the regime.”