Mike Pence: Iranian Regime Has Never Been Weaker Than it is Today

Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
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Mike Pence: Iranian Regime Has Never Been Weaker Than it is Today

Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP
Rajavi hosted Pence in Albania last year. Gent SHKULLAKU / AFP

Former US vice president Mike Pence has said the "Iranian regime has never been weaker than it is today" in the wake of the protest movement that erupted in September.

"This is not just another protest but the beginning of a revolution for freedom," Pence, vice president under Donald Trump who is now seeking to challenge his former boss for the Republican nomination, told a conference in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris.

"One of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold to the world is that there is no alternative,” he added.

Saturday’s conference was organized by the People's Mujahedin (MEK) group outlawed by Tehran, as thousands of supporters of the group staged a rally in the center of the French capital that had initially been banned by the police.

"No oppressive regime can last forever," said Pence who addressed the meeting in person and last year met MEK's leader Maryam Rajavi at its headquarters in Albania.

"Appeasement towards the mullahs' regime may lead to more bloodshed among our people," Rajavi told the meeting, while adding it would "be futile in protecting" supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "from his inevitable downfall."



Israeli Spy Chief Hands Court Scathing Rebuke of Netanyahu Bid to Sack Him

Israeli Security Agency director Ronen Bar attends a memorial ceremony of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year -. GIL COHEN-MAGEN/Pool via REUTERS/File
Israeli Security Agency director Ronen Bar attends a memorial ceremony of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year -. GIL COHEN-MAGEN/Pool via REUTERS/File
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Israeli Spy Chief Hands Court Scathing Rebuke of Netanyahu Bid to Sack Him

Israeli Security Agency director Ronen Bar attends a memorial ceremony of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year -. GIL COHEN-MAGEN/Pool via REUTERS/File
Israeli Security Agency director Ronen Bar attends a memorial ceremony of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year -. GIL COHEN-MAGEN/Pool via REUTERS/File

The head of Israel's domestic intelligence service said on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bid to sack him followed his refusal to fulfil requests that included spying on Israeli protesters and disrupting the leader's corruption trial.

In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the head of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, said that Netanyahu's March move to dismiss him was not based on professional grounds but was prompted by unmet expectations of personal loyalty to the prime minister.

In response, Netanyahu's office said it would soon deliver a detailed refute of Bar's affidavit, which it called "false". Netanyahu's move to sack Bar fuelled protests in Israel and was suspended by the Supreme Court, after political watchdogs and opposition lawmakers argued the dismissal was unlawful. Critics say that the government is undermining key state institutions and endangering the foundations of Israeli democracy. Netanyahu's Likud party has accused Bar of acting against the prime minister and turning parts of the Shin Bet service into "a private militia of the Deep State." Israel's government has backed Netanyahu, who said that he had lost confidence in Bar over the agency's failure to prevent the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, a security failure that had led to the country's deadliest day, Reuters reported.

But in the unclassified part of his affidavit, Bar argued that the quest to oust him began more than a year after the attack. He cited a series of events between November 2024 and February 2025, which he said appeared to prompt the prime minister's moves against him.

Bar also said he refused to sign off on a security request aimed at preventing continuous testimony by Netanyahu at his corruption trial. Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing, began testifying in his long-running court case in December.