Why have the Khamenei regime's execution and assassination machines been activated?

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. Today is Wednesday, 23 Mehr 1404, October 15, 2025. The third day of the hunger strike in Ghezel Hesar Prison has also come to an end. The hunger strike means that political prisoners, joined by ordinary prisoners, are refusing prison food. They are protesting the widespread executions the regime has launched to spread terror. Since the start of the Western calendar year, they have carried out more than 1,000 executions, which is a record even for the Islamic Republic, a regime that already ranks first in the world in this regard.

1:05 The slogan "No to executions," raised by the prisoners in Ghezel Hesar, continues a campaign that began long ago: "No to Execution Tuesdays" and the call to abolish the death penalty. This campaign has been active for a long time, and activists argue that this inhumane sentence, which serves as the regime's instrument of repression, must be taken out of its hands. Regimes of this kind try to survive through executions and terror, and when they feel more threatened, their execution machine runs faster.

2:04 I have also said before that the survival of such regimes depends on keeping people frightened, isolated from one another, and hopeless. Together, these three psychological states lead people to believe that the regime is absolutely powerful and that they are absolutely weak, and the regime survives between these two absolutes. That is why any movement, campaign, or action that counters these three things helps. Whatever brings people out of their isolation and lets them gather together, even something as small as a contest

2:59 in the neighborhood, dancing, celebration, a protest, a gathering, a concert where people see each other, neighborhood mutual aid, charity, sports competitions, and so on, is a step toward breaking the spell that keeps people isolated. And any action, especially acts of civil disobedience in which citizens openly break the regime's laws or directives, is a step toward getting out of this state of fear. Especially when they achieve a success, that success

3:57 must be highlighted, to show that the regime is not only far from absolutely powerful but is in fact weak and vulnerable. Examples are the success women have achieved in resisting compulsory hijab, or the success people achieved against the ban on satellite dishes, which was very widespread, or other successes achieved at different times and in specific cases. These successes break the myth the regime promotes when it says "I am invincible" or "I will not back down." Hope must be drawn from these very victories and given back to society: the hope of a future without the Islamic Republic, a government of the people,

4:53 by the people, and for the people. This is the path by which the owners of the house, meaning the people, can push the Islamic Republic aside and build a bright future. Now, in the past 24 hours, Safaa al-Mashhadani, a Sunni candidate for the Iraqi parliament, whose elections are coming up, was assassinated by a bomb. Also, Masoud Nazari, an Iranian dissident from Javanrud in Kermanshah, was assassinated in front of his home in Turkey. Everyone believes both assassinations were the work of the Islamic Republic and its agents. So in two countries, Iraq and Turkey, the Islamic Republic's machine

5:50 of terror and murder has started moving. After the successive defeats it has suffered in the region, the Islamic Republic hopes that with this method, not only in Turkey and Iraq but also in Syria, where there was a bombing outside Damascus some time ago, and in Palestine and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it can use the same weapon to rebuild itself somewhat after its defeat. In any case, these actions will not go unanswered in Iraq, and in Turkey, if this was done without coordination with the Turkish intelligence service, then the Islamic Republic should expect the consequences.

6:48 Meanwhile, Ezzatollah Zarghami, who was head of the Islamic Republic's state broadcaster, IRIB, for nearly ten years and later Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, among other posts, said in a tweet yesterday that whichever official in the country you call is unreachable and their mobile phones are switched off. He said this applies all the way down to the country's middle-level managers. This tweet, which has caused an uproar, effectively shows the state of communications inside the Islamic Republic. The communications of any organization are its nervous system, and a government whose communications are disrupted is like a body without nerves, lying paralyzed in a corner.

7:44 Khamenei, as young people say, has gone so far underground that he is now five meters from the earth's molten core. Other officials are in their holes too, and as this same Mr. Zarghami says, it has spread down to the middle levels of the country. So it is no wonder that some people say the government seems to be entirely absent, while people are trapped in the grip of chronic runaway inflation, economic recession and a stalled economy, as well as air pollution and shortages of water, electricity, gas, and other problems. Whenever the government does show its face, it is to talk about raising the price of gasoline and other goods, or

8:37 about mandated pricing and driving producers into bankruptcy. In any case, it is plain to see that from Khamenei himself to everyone else, they are just getting by from one day to the next, and no serious or decisive decision is currently being made in the country. Another piece of news that attracted a lot of attention: it was reported that the Islamic Republic's oil tankers, which used to turn off their transponders and navigation systems so they could not be tracked, have suddenly turned them on and are openly carrying oil to China. Various explanations have been offered for this, including that the oil embargo

9:35 is not part of the UN sanctions that have been reinstated, and that in fact only America has imposed it. So the Islamic Republic wanted to make a show of strength with this, and its back is also secure because of China. Others say this is temporary, meant to show that the sanctions supposedly have no effect on it, and there are other explanations. But one point can be made: the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said today that China does not joke about its energy supply and is very serious about it. Although China has not explicitly said, as Russia has, that it does not accept the UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic,

10:35 in practice it shows this in various ways. At the same time, China prefers that the conflicts in the Middle East continue through Iran so that America stays busy here, and likewise in Ukraine through Russia, so that the West, meaning Western Europe and America, is effectively preoccupied in these two regions and rivalry with China, tariff disputes, and so on do not come up for now, especially from Trump's America. Meanwhile, Mr. Putin had invited Arab leaders to come to Moscow at the end of this week, but almost no one went. It was said that only Iraq and Syria accepted the invitation, though apparently Iraq did not go either. From Syria, Mr.

11:33 Ahmed al-Sharaa went to Moscow and met Putin. It is said he told Russia that the existing agreements remain valid, but asked for help in resolving the issue of Sweida province and the conflict with Israel, using Russia's influence over Israel. He also requested the return of Bashar al-Assad, or at least his money. And Naser Taghvai, an exceptional talent of our country, who was strikingly and brilliantly gifted in everything he set foot in, from fiction writing and screenwriting to photography and filmmaking, has died at the age of 84. Taghvai,

12:33 who made six feature films and several documentaries, published short story collections, and whose television series "My Uncle Napoleon" truly conquered Iran and still does, was one of those who chose to live an honorable life. He stood up to censorship of both his books and his films, and declared that he did not recognize any right of the government to read his story or watch his film and issue a permit, let alone censor it. With this conviction, Taghvai was insisting on one of the self-evident principles of democracy:

13:27 that publishing books, making films, publishing newspapers, freedom of expression and freedom of action are rights of the people, and no government has the right to review or censor them. In hope of victory for Iran and Iranians.