Statement of the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party ofIran:

On the recent developments in Iran!

The world political arena has witnessed important and unprecedented developments over the past few months, the most important of which is related to the re-election of Donald Trump and the profound effects of this on the structure of international affairs. This event, i.e. Trump's second term, has had far-reaching effects not only on U.S. policy, but also has presented a clear image of the greedy and aggressive actions of monopoly capitalism, the billionaires' rule, and the U.S. imperialism to the world public opinion. Trump's policies, his hostile and aggressive approach under the grandiose slogan of "America First" in foreign policy, and the instigation of trade wars with various countries, including a number of U.S.'s traditional allies in Europe and the neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico, have brought about important changes in international relations, which were clearly reflected in his recent visit to the West Asia.

Signing hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates for the sale of weaponry and advanced artificial intelligence systems, meeting with Ahmed al-Shara, Syria's interim president and a figure who was on the U.S. list of "global terrorists" in 2013, ending U.S. sanctions against the current Syrian regime, and letting the racist and criminal Netanyahu government to freely kill and commit massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, and exerting maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran to reach a strategic agreement with the U.S. administration, end uranium enrichment, and open Iran's markets to U.S. investment have all together created a new situation in the West Asia.

Trump's focus on strengthening alliances with Arab states and increasing pressure on Iran, and threatening a military attack on Iran by allowing Israel to do so, has raised serious concerns about dangerous escalation of regional tensions. These developments have prompted countries in the region to reassess their strategies in regional and international relations. Iran, due to its strategic location and special situation, has been more than ever exposed to the impact of these global developments. Iran's official negotiations with the United States in recent weeks have had broad reflections at the global level. So far, there have been conflicting reports about the progress of the negotiations, which is worth considering.

In the first and second rounds of negotiations, the two sides talked about the progress and seriousness of the negotiations and expressed hope to get the desired results, but in recent days, the Trump administration's proposal to stop any uranium enrichment by Iran has echoed broadly. In an interview with NBC, Ali Shamkhani, a political adviser to Ali Khamenei [Iran's Supreme Leader], said, "In exchange for the lifting of all economic sanctions, Iran pledges to never develop nuclear weapons, to convert its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, to continue enrichment at a non-military level, and to allow IAEA inspectors to monitor."

Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, in response to the question of what is the "framework of the agreement" that Donald Trump wants, said that the president had been "very clear" that he wanted to resolve the issue through "diplomacy and dialogue," but that "we have a very clear red line, and that is the issue of enrichment" and "we cannot accept even one percent of the enrichment capability." Following Witkoff's statement about zeroing uranium enrichment in Iran, Ali Khamenei in his speech at the first anniversary of the fatal crash that killed the former President Ibrahim Raisi said: "During Raisi's tenure, the negotiations were indirect, but with no results. And now, too, we don't think this will bear any fruit and we don't know what will happen.” Khamenei also addressed the American side of the negotiations, saying that "they should try not to talk nonsense. It is a great mistake to say that we will not allow Iran to enrich; this is talking trash; the Islamic Republic is not waiting for the permission of this or that [state]."

In recent weeks, the Tudeh Party of Iran, in assessing the progress of these negotiations and the maneuvers of the parties to the negotiations, especially the Islamic Republic, to manage public opinion and Ali Khamenei's shifts and "heroic leniency" regarding open negotiations with the United States, has emphasized that the leaders of the Islamic Republic, especially Khamenei and his installed President, have long been only an observer of developments and Trump's decisions from a position of weakness and bafflement and reacting only with useless talks.

In the current situation, it seems that the only option for Khamenei and his advisers in the crisis management room is to try to make a covert concession with Trump. They are trying to ensure the survival of the Islamic Republic's rule and maintain the credibility of Ali Khamenei's position, a position that has imposed its criminal and anti-people policies on the nation by implementing damaging policies based on neoliberal economic policies and in combination with the laws of religious reaction. By adopting an anti-national policy of "exporting the Islamic Revolution to the region", spending tens of billions of dollars of national wealth, Khamenei has put Iran in a very difficult and dangerous situation in the region.

In recent days, following the reports in the world's media, including the American CNN, about Israel's preparations to attack the nuclear facilities of Iran, the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have issued warning statements in this regard. In its May 24, 2025 statement, the IRGC stressed that it has "its hands on the trigger" and will respond to "any hostile action by the enemy" with a "decisive, regrettable, and beyond imagination" action. Referring to the United States and Israel, the IRGC statement reads that "the response of this force to any aggression" will be such that it will change the "strategic equations of power" in West Asia.

The question that our Party and other progressive forces should be able to answer realistically and in the interests of the people is which option should the Iranian regime choose in the current catastrophic situation? Moving towards a military conflict with U.S. imperialism and Israeli, a conflict that could turn Iran into another Syria and Iraq, an action demanded by foreign-affiliated forces such as the monarchists and the Mojahedin, as well as parts of the IRGC forces (IRGC commanders and forces) who have been the main brokers and major beneficiaries of sanctions and the destruction of the country's economy over the past decades? The Tudeh Party of Iran, like other progressive and popular forces of our country, has been and still is in favour of peace, and to that end, it calls for transparent, open, and direct negotiations, taking into account the cutback of the cost of the current catastrophic conditions for the Iranian people. It should not be forgotten that dragging Iran into a destructive military conflict could have catastrophic and long-lasting consequences for our homeland and the popular movement, and could set back the struggle for freedom and liberation from the clutches of dictatorship by many years.

The catastrophic economic situation and the unceasing protests of different segments of the nation

Iran's economy is in a very grim situation due to the disastrous macroeconomic policies dictated by Khamenei's office over the past thirty years. The annual inflation rate has reached more than 40%, and the official unemployment rate is around 11%, while many experts consider the real figure to be much higher. In addition, it should be noted that the inhumane U.S. sanctions during Trump's first term of presidency and their continuation during the Biden administration, along with Iran's domestic economic policies have caused a deep economic recession and a staggering increase in the cost of living. Many production units have been closed or partially closed, and according to official reports, the country's industrial production has decreased by more than 20 percent in recent years, and even according to official government statistics, more than a third of Iran's population lives below the poverty line. These dire economic conditions have caused social discontent to increase to a significant level.

According to unofficial reports and conducted researches, apart from the protests of project workers in the oil industry, a total of 2,789 labour protests took place in the last year, which is about 10 percent more than the year before.

There has also been a widespread strike by truck drivers since May 19, which has swept across the country and has brought the shipments to a halt in dozens of parts of Iran, including Tehran, South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Ardabil, Khoy, Bushehr, Sistan and Baluchestan, Gilan, Fars, Isfahan, Qazvin, West Azerbaijan, Yazd, Lorestan, Kermanshah, Kerman, and Bandar Abbas. This strike has been widely supported by all the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the country.

The Tudeh Party of Iran has always emphasized the importance of the courageous struggle of Iranian women against the ruling authoritarian regime. Despite all the regime's efforts to violently and bloodily suppress it, especially during the "Woman, Life, Freedom" uprising, the struggle of the women of our country against the ruling reaction not only has not been obliterated, but is moving with increasing momentum to influence the implementation of fundamental changes. The successive issuance of death sentences in Iran, especially for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience and militant heroines such as Sharifeh Mohammadi and then Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi on the medieval charge of "rebel", in terms of both form and content, stems from the regime's growing fear of the struggles of the militant women of the nation and also aims to prevent the growth of the popular movement, a courageous struggle that has greatly challenged the survival of the Islamic Republic.

As the successful experience of the collective and coordinated struggle of progressive social forces against the outdated law of "chastity and hijab" and the retreat of the theocratic regime and suspension of the implementation of this law has shown, in opposing the execution of death sentences, it is the relentless struggles of the democratic and popular forces and the raising of the voice of the "No to Execution" movement that will prevent the regime's executioners from committing more crimes. Contrary to the propaganda of the regime and its leaders, the critical situation in the country has intensified as the gap between the people and the political authorities in Iran deepens every day, and the regime's social base has fallen to an unprecedented low level. Its class base is now limited to the upper strata of mercantile capitalism and bureaucratic rentier capitalism of the country. Dissatisfaction with the performance of the government, the oppression and corruption of the regime's apparatus, its inability to deal with economic problems, and not responding appropriately to the demands of the citizens have also caused the legitimacy of the country's political system, i.e. the absolute theocratic regime, to collapse completely in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the nation.

Serious challenges to the concord and cooperation of progressive and freedom-loving forces, and our duties

On June 18, 2024, the Party's Central Committee issued a statement titled "A Call for a National Discourse" in which it noted that the situation in the country is extremely critical and that the authoritarian and anti-people regime has once again staged another electoral show through picking its own pawns, which the overwhelming majority of the country's patriotic and freedom-loving forces have rightly boycotted.

For years, the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the country have complained about the lack of coordination and cooperation, and unfortunately, no effective steps have been taken to remove the obstacles to cooperation and unity of these forces. At the same time, we have all consistently emphasized the fact that in the absence of an organized and coordinated opposition that can present a clear and concrete program of struggle to the frustrated people of the country, the Islamic Republic catastrophic life will continue. Nearly a year has passed since the publication of that statement, and we must clearly state that: Even though there were some meetings and general talks, we believe that there is no serious sign or prospect of the desire of the various progressive and freedom-loving forces- from the spectrum of nationalist and religious forces to the broad spectrum of leftist forces- to reach a serious agreement and move towards the establishment of a broad and people-oriented front.

Unfortunately, unrealistic self-aggrandizement, sectarianism, and a lack of a proper understanding of the duties and how to form a popular front whose basis should be the need to accept diversity of opinions and viewpoints are the obstacle. Accepting the diversity of views and different insights, it is important to reach an agreement on how to solve the most important problem of our society, namely the transition from the authoritarian and anti-people regime of the Islamic Republic to the establishment of a national and democratic republic. Many of the dialogues and exchanges, instead of focusing on reaching common views about the difficulties and the extremely critical and explosive situation of society, are based on points of difference, differences in viewpoints about the past historical issues, and an attempt to impose one's own opinion, an effort that, in our view, is a clear reflection of the socio-political backwardness and the lack of belief in democracy and freedom of thought, despite all the claims.

While continuing the Party's efforts to establish a united front against dictatorship, the Party's activities, in accordance with its long-standing tradition, focus more on strengthening social forces, especially the working class and other working people, and emphasizing the urgent need for cooperation and unity of action of a wide range of social forces, from workers and retirees to educators, students, and nurses, and especially the courageous struggle of the women of the nation. Of course, it is clear that our party will continue its efforts to improve relations and find practical cooperation with other patriotic and progressive forces of the nation.

Iran's future depends on deep structural changes and wide-ranging reforms that can lead to both an improvement in the economic situation and an improvement in social relations. These structural changes are not possible with the continuation of the authoritarian and anti-people rule of the Islamic Republic. This is a fact that even significant sections of the regime's social base have realized.

The time for shaping fundamental changes in the situation of the country is fast approaching, and the Tudeh Party of Iran, along with other progressive and freedom-loving forces of the country, must prepare itself for such circumstances.

The Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran

2 June 2025