Iran Transition Council is established

Since the uprising of Dec. 2017, the situation in Iran has changed dramatically. A new chapter in Iranian history has begun: the beginning of the collapse of the Islamic Republic. This era is defined the following occurrences. First, the Islamic regime has lost its remaining legitimacy. An absolute majority of Iranian people believes the regime’s failure is necessary to address the complex challenges of the country. Second, mismanagement and corruption of the government have reached new heights and become unbearable. Every few months, the country faces a new major crisis and big financial scandals, but the government is unable to craft any meaningful response. Finally, the regime is unable to resolve the foreign relations issues, resulting in additional sanctions, which have further isolated Iran and devastated its economic system. Iranian people are looking for an alternative to the Islamic regime. Future widespread unrest and uprising against the government are very much on the horizon.

 

However, in the absence of leadership and a coordinating body that can direct and ensure a peaceful transition of power, the risk of violence and civil war is high. Without a leadership that can manage the march to democracy through peaceful means that include all layers of society, beliefs, and ideas, the chance of chaos, anarchy, and civil war, as it happened in Syria or the former Yugoslavia, is a real one. With this notable political figures from inside and outside of Iran have gathered in recent months to begin forming a council that can lead the transition to a democratic political order in Iran.

The Transitional Council has been formed by the main pro-democracy Iranian political groups and interested individuals. As the Founders’ Group for the Transitional Council, the undersigned strive to enlist the cooperation of all leading opposition groups and known political activists from all political spectrums who accept the principles of Human Rights and democracy. We encourage their participation in a non-violent movement to create responsive democracy in Iran.

Over the course of the past 18 months, the members of the Transitional Council have been engaged in intense consultations with hundreds of individuals from all political stripes: freedom-loving republicans, constitutional monarchists, Iranian ethnic groups, parties of the left, liberal democrats, and religious believers in a secular state. We believe that no single orientation or belief can bridge the social divides of 85 million Iranians to offer a legitimate, stable and sustainable solution for a post-Islamic Republic era. If we want a transition to peaceful democracy, we must welcome all ideas and work together.

So far, tens of prominent figures and activists with vastly different backgrounds and political affiliations have joined the Iran Transitional Council’s common cause for the peaceful transition of Iran from the Islamic Republic to a pluralist, secular and Democratic state. Our objective is to complete the transition while safeguarding Iran’s territorial integrity, ensuring a free election supervised by the UN, and creating a government incorporating the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its amendments.

Iran’s peaceful transition to a secular democracy is the best possible scenario for the world and the region. We believe that with such a transition, Iran will find its well-deserved place among other democratic nations, that it will integrate into international liberal order and that it will realize the nation’s the substantial economic potential to provide prosperous lives for all Iranians. We want to be able to live in peace, collaboration, and cooperation in all economic, cultural, scientific and technological aspects with our neighbors and all nations of the region including the Arab states and Israel.

 

We are confident that democratic nations do not want to witness another Syrian tragedy, which has had catastrophic consequences for the region and the world. We are determined to avoid that tragedy. We, the ITC founders would like to request your moral support for this cause. We look forward to the opportunity to further engage with you and discuss the ITC, its objectives, and its potential, and to hear your thoughts.