Iranian society today is wounded, frightened, yet politically alive and hopeful. Europe’s task is not to speak over it, contain it, or reduce it to a security problem. It is to recognize that the Iranian people are the real democratic actors in this story.  

When regimes abandon rule of law, they become security liabilities overnight. Imagine: A NATO army where promotions depend on loyalty tests, not competence, migration deals signed with leaders who tear up constitutions before breakfast and a Middle East mediator whose courts can declare any opponent a “terrorist” on demand.