Iran would be destroyed if the Islamic Republic is overthrown, former president Mohammad Khatami said, arguing that reform was the only viable path for change and warning against radical movements.
“If this system, with all its shortcomings and flaws, collapses, Iran’s fate would be far more bitter than it is now,” Khatami said at a meeting with journalists, artists and university professors, according to semi-official ISNA news agency.
"Separatism, foreign intervention, infiltrations, and the like would destroy Iran, and the only path to fundamental reform is one that is less costly and more beneficial than any other solution," the former reformist president added.
Khatami said public anger should not be confused with support for radical action.
“If we look beyond fleeting emotions and the anger stemming from the current situation, I believe the majority would choose reform,” he said.
Khatami’s remarks come as many Iranians appear to have moved on from the long-standing reformist–hardliner divide, with public discourse increasingly sceptical of gradual reform from within the system.
A survey conducted in 2024 and published in August 2025 by the Netherlands-based institute GAMAAN found that the majority of Iranians would vote for either a regime change or a structural transition away from the Islamic Republic, highlighting growing demands for political change across Iran.
Opposition rose to about 81% during the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the survey said.
During the widespread protests which began in September 2022, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, demonstrators repeatedly called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.
The protests were quashed with deadly force, with at least 550 people killed by state security forces and thousands arrested according to rights groups.
