Iran says 40 Iranians in ICE custody to be flown home

The non-profit Jewish Institute for National Security of America, founded in 1976, advocates for a strong US military relationship with Israel and researches conflict in the Middle East.

JINSA president and CEO Michael Makovsky and the group’s vice president for policy Blaise Misztal told Iran International’s English-language podcast Eye for Iran that decades of containment, deterrence and nuclear diplomacy have failed because the Islamic Republic itself should be destroyed.

“It should be US policy to seek the collapse of this regime,” Makovsky said.

They said hesitation now — after mass killings of protesters across Iran — risks emboldening Tehran at the theocracy's weakest moment.

“We don’t say regime change,” Makovsky said. “The regime will fall … only when the Iranian people bring it down. But it should be US policy … to seek the collapse of this regime.”

The last months, Misztal said, have created a rare strategic opening: Iran’s nuclear clock has been set back, its regional proxies weakened and Iranians themselves have returned to the streets demanding freedom.

“This is a moment like no other,” he said. “I don’t know when the stars will align like this again… why not make it now? When is a better time than now?”

The duo urged the Trump administration to abandon negotiations, intensify pressure on the Revolutionary Guards and build the infrastructure needed to help Iranians defeat the Islamic Republic.

Misztal said previous administrations focused on Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism sponsorship and ballistic missile development as separate threats without tying them back to what he called the ideological nature of the theocracy.

“Yes, it’s a problem that Iran is the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism. Yes, it is a problem that it’s pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said. “But all of that stems from it being the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump’s Promises and a Moment of Decision

Their warnings come as President Donald Trump faces rising scrutiny over his own rhetoric. Earlier this month, Trump vowed support for protesters and issued a direct warning to Tehran.

“I tell the Iranian leaders: You better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting, too,” he said.

But Makovsky warned that after mass killings and widespread arrests, the absence of immediate consequences risks damaging US credibility.

“The Iranians have called his bluff for now,” he said. “If he doesn’t do it, it will go down as a tragic mistake.”

In recent days, Trump has said a US "armada" is heading toward the Middle East, with the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers expected to arrive in the region soon as Washington signals it is positioning military assets amid escalating uncertainty.

The growing tensions are now rippling far beyond Iran itself.

Major European airlines have begun suspending flights across parts of the Middle East, citing security concerns. Air France has canceled flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai, British Airways has halted evening service to Dubai and KLM has suspended routes to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Industry officials say cancellations are expected to increase gradually as carriers reassess airspace restrictions and passenger safety in a rapidly deteriorating regional environment.

A Cold War–Style Pressure Campaign

Misztal framed the strategy as a modern version of what the United States pursued against Soviet communism: strengthening civil resistance while weakening the ruling system from within.

“The strategy of regime collapse has been precisely what the United States pursued throughout the Cold War,” he said.

He argued that Washington should encourage defections, isolate elites in authority, cut off funding streams and expand opposition communications.

“One of the things we recommended is a quarantine of Iran’s oil exports,” Misztal said, “so that it doesn’t keep getting the money to rebuild its forces to pay the Basij or the IRGC.”

Both analysts warned that Iran’s leadership is entering what they described as its most dangerous phase, amid mass violence at home and the potential for war abraod.

“A showdown of some kind” is coming, Misztal said, and “the next showdown will be the last one."

The Defending Free Flow of Information Organization (DeFFI) said its 2025 annual report documented 264 cases of intensified judicial and security pressure against journalists and media outlets, including arrests, interrogations, trials and operational disruptions.

The report says Iranian authorities now treat independent journalism as a security issue, framing the flow of information as a threat that requires a coordinated response by judicial, intelligence and media bodies.

According to DeFFI, 225 journalists and media outlets faced judicial or security measures last year, with 148 new judicial cases filed against media workers. At least 14 journalists were detained or had prison sentences enforced, while 8 media outlets were shut down or banned.

The report found that 34 female journalists were among those targeted and that judicial and security institutions violated legal rights in at least 396 documented instances.

The most frequently used charge against journalists was “spreading falsehoods,” applied in 106 cases, DeFFI added.

Sentences issued to 25 journalists and media managers collectively exceeded 30 years in prison, alongside nearly 293 million tomans (more than $2,000) in fines and five years of internal exile, according to the report.

The findings come as Iran has been under a near-total internet blackout since January 8, imposed amid nationwide anti-government protests.

The shutdown has severely restricted public access to global online platforms while allowing state-linked media and select institutions to remain connected.

Internet monitoring and human rights groups say the blackout, which has lasted for hundreds of hours, is among the longest and most comprehensive imposed by government in Iran.

The warnings would mark a sharp uptick in rhetoric on Iraq by the administration of US President Donald Trump as it pursues its maximum pressure campaign of sanctions against its Mideast arch-nemesis Iran.

Citing three Iraqi officials and a source familiar with the matter, the news agency reported that US Charge d'Affaires in Baghdad Joshua Harris conveyed the warnings in conversations over the past two months with Iraqi officials from across its fractured political spectrum.

Iran relies closely on the banking sector its Western neighbor, where recent parliamentary polls kept Shi'ite Muslim parties in the ascendant and delivered gains for politicians from the kaleidoscope of militias and parties backed by Tehran.

The Islamic Republic's own economic lifeline of oil exports is under heavy pressure from US sanctions, even if export levels remain buoyant one year into Trump's second term, and Iraqi financial instruments help it skirt US curbs.

Following a 2003 US invasion, the United States has maintained de facto control over Iraqi oil revenues and its preponderant banking and financial puts the funds within its reach.

"The United States supports Iraqi sovereignty, and the sovereignty of every country in the region," Reuters quoted a US State Department spokesperson as saying in response to a request for comment. "That leaves absolutely no role for Iran-backed militias that pursue malign interests, cause sectarian division, and spread terrorism across the region."

US warnings also broached cutting off engagement with Baghdad if 58 members of parliament Washington views as linked to Iran are elevated by Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani to cabinet positions.

"The American line was basically that they would suspend engagement with the new government should any of those 58 MPs be represented in cabinet," Reuters quoted an Iraqi officials as saying.

"They said it meant they wouldn't deal with that government and would suspend dollar transfers," the source added.

Forming the new cabinet is due to take months and the US moves did not appear to be linked to a recent deadly crackdown on protestors in Iran, which resulted in new US sanctions on Iranian officials and oil shipping networks.

Machado said Iran and Venezuela were bound by deep cooperation between their rulers, even as people in both countries rise up against repression.

“The Iranian people, the Venezuelan people, we are fighting the same struggle,” she said. “These regimes have been cooperating for many years, exchanging resources, information, technology, agents and weapons.”

She said authoritarian governments help each other bypass pressure and maintain control, while democracies often stop at statements.

“Dictators help each other, they exchange technology, resources, they help each other bypass sanctions and they support each other in international forums,” Machado said. “Democratic governments stay at statements and declarations that at the end do not serve the people.”

Machado said people in Iran had reached a breaking point and were calling on the world to respond.

“We reach a point where the people start asking the world to react and to support,” she said. “What we are asking for is to stop the killings and to save lives.”

She criticized what she described as double standards among democratic governments that condemn repression while maintaining economic ties.

“You sign declarations talking about freedom and equality and respect for human rights, then you do business with these regimes,” Machado said. “You buy oil from these regimes and you keep their assets and resources in your own financial systems.”

Praise for Trump action

Machado praised Donald Trump for taking decisive action against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and said it showed what firm leadership could achieve.

“Finally in Venezuela we’re seeing President Trump making a tremendous important decision,” she said. “Bringing a criminal to justice is precisely what the world needs.”

She said the move sent a signal beyond Venezuela.

“It has brought a lot of hope,” Machado said. “This is a milestone.”

Machado said repression continues when dictators see little cost in using force.

“When you’re dealing with criminals, the only way they will leave is when the cost of staying in power is higher than the cost of leaving,” she said.

She said opposition movements cannot succeed alone without coordinated international pressure.

“We have done everything that any civic movement can do and they are killing us,” Machado said. “What we are asking for is applying law enforcement and cutting the resources they use to fund repression.”

Machado said the fall of Iran’s ruling system would have consequences far beyond the country.

“Imagine how the world will look once the Iranian criminal regime falls,” she said. “This is a unique moment in history.”

She said cooperation among opposition groups and diasporas was essential.

“These regimes help each other, and we the people need to connect and coordinate,” Machado said. “Regardless of how far away we are, we are united in this aspiration.”

“I can only speak for myself. I don’t need any more reminding about how bad this regime is and that somebody better do something about it, because if it’s not us, nobody’s going to do anything about it,” Levin said.

Levin said recent reports of increased US military deployments to the region suggested Washington was keeping its options open, although he said he had no insight into whether military action was being considered.

“Most revolutions, including America’s own, needed outside help,” he said. “What is happening in Iran is a counter-revolution against a regime that rules by force and fear.”

Levin also criticized decades of US engagement with Tehran, arguing that successive administrations believed the Islamic Republic could be managed through negotiations.

“This is an ideological regime,” he said. “They talk, they negotiate, but they have no intention of abandoning their mission, and that is why they so brutally suppress their own people.”

Iran has faced widespread internet disruptions during renewed unrest, with only limited information reaching the outside world through satellite connections and virtual private networks.

“I can tell you that tens of millions of Americans stand with the people of Persia. There’s no question about it,” Levin said. “We know the regime there is Hitleresque, Nazi-like. The regime is slaughtering innocent people, especially young people, raping them, and pillaging towns. We know that regime is the enemy of the American people. They’ve made that abundantly clear.”

Iran International has reported that at least 12,000 people have been killed since the protests began, while CBS News has cited estimates placing the death toll as high as 20,000.

Sources told Iran International on Wednesday that hospitals and morgues are facing shortages of body bags, forcing authorities to store bodies in corridors and other areas.

“We know they still want to build nuclear weapons. They back terrorism in our country, throughout Europe, and across the Middle East, but the people they terrorize the most are the Persian people,” Levin said. “I feel horrible about what’s taking place, and all I can do is use my platforms to draw as much attention to this as I can.”

Levin said Iranians possess a long civilizational history distinct from other countries in the region and said those who emigrate to the United States often integrate successfully and contribute to American society.

“If the people of Iran were free, the contributions they could make to science, culture, and technology would be extraordinary,” he said. “Instead, they are focused on survival under repression.”