Human Interest

By Crystal Jones • June 22, 2025

Jerusalem, 22 June, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The leader of a newly-founded group that hopes to be at the forefront of regime change in Iran has said the ‘world is going to be shocked’ at how much Iran and Israel are going to achieve together after the war.

Iranian human rights activist Vahid Beheshti, known for his 72 day hunger strike to put pressure on the UK government to proscribe the regime power – Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – as a terrorist group, spoke positively and said he expects the war to be over in “two or three months”.

Having completed his strike in 2023, and been campaigning across the world tirelessly since then, he has now founded Iran Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty in Transition (shortened to Iran Front).

It is a grassroots movement comprised of leaders across the political, cultural, and religious spectrum of Iran, in favour of implementing a democratic government in Iran, with principles of social justice at its core.

Speaking to TPS-IL, he said: “I believe America was joining the war is a turning point in history – last night, we entered a new phase.”

Behesthti fled from Iran to the UK 28 years ago, after he received a tip he was on a hit list to be killed by the Iranian regime, due to his opposition.

It came after several of his relatives were murdered. “It wasn’t my choice [to flee], but there wasn’t a choice, they could kill me like they did three of my cousins, so I fled to London.

“I decided to forget politics and activism and just live a peaceful life. But I couldn’t, that didn’t work for me – after four years, I started activism again.

“My best friend, who was married to my cousin escaped to France, but the regime kidnapped him to Iran, and after one year they hung him. We lost a lot of great lives in this fight, but now, we are in the final phase of it all.”

Speaking positively, he now stated; “We don’t even need the proscription anymore – the regime is finished, but we need to give more time to the Iranian people. I see the war being over in two or three months.”

Beheshti was hospitalized for two weeks after collapsing on his 72nd day of a hunger strike outside the British parliament two years ago. During that time, he ate only one cube of sugar and a teaspoon of salt daily, drinking water to keep him alive.

After his hospitalization, he was put into a safe house, when he was again told there was a plot to have him killed. This was just months before October 7. After that, he was invited to speak around the world, including in Israel.

The vision of Iran Front’s vision is for a religion-less, lawful, democratic constitution, debated and approved by the people of Iran – something he says; “99, if not 100% of Iranians want it.”

He worked for eight months, alongside lawyers and community, political and religious leaders on putting together a plan.

He continued: “[The new constitution will be founded upon] democracy, secularism, and social justice. They [the Iranian people] will debate it in a parliament. This is not a monarchy or republican. Parliament will decide what the country will do.

“I can say easily with confidence, that over 90% of Iranians will be ok with a secular state, because even the most religious people had enough of religion in politics. Even the really religious were absolutely oppressed.

“We are planning on referring everything to the international charter of human rights, everything is going to refer to that.”

He says the movement is backed by a spectrum of leaders from across every aspect of life in Iran: “When I was hospitalised, the leader of 22 million sunnis took a huge risk to show support with a tweet saying he is glad I broke the hunger strike because I am needed for the future of Iran.

“So we have support in ethnic, religious and political diversity. After that, I had a request of all these different groups to unite them.

“One of the problems in Iran is division. Academia and mainstream media, constantly inject that into the mind of policy makers. Maybe we are not good as a system, but we were always told we don’t have any replacement.

“Our opposition is fighting each other, and this was the employed tactic of the regime for 46 years. We’ve been told we will face more craziness in the Middle East because of the power vacuum.

“So Iran Front is inclusive, so that opposition can see themselves in all of this and unite. Even the different groups that are really against each other came together on day 66 on my hunger strike.

“So by the request of the Iranian people, we created the Iranian Front, with a great manifesto.”

Now empowered by the weakening of the power in Iran, he is confident Iran Front will be successful.

He sees those that are a part of the movement as working with international law to implement a new era, kick-started by a nation-wide referendum in Iran.

“The first part of cooperation of these groups will be to have the first election on the watch of the international community and United Nations. The first referendum will ask the Iranian people if they want this regime.

“After that, we are going to have another election, to elect a true representative. That could take two, maybe three years to write new constitution law and after we will put it to a referendum again.

“We will ask what kind of government they would like. Then the 17 point manifesto is done, we’ve done our job.

“We are going to do it all through a legal framework…We are not republican, or democrat, or left or right. People here are really focussed on collaborating.”

Speaking of how he envisions Iran’s future, he said: “Absolutely, the majority of Iranians will vote for this and surprise the whole world after the fall of this regime.

“The world will be surprised, all these tentacles [such as Hamas and the Houthis] will die down, because the source of funding will die down. The world will be surprised at what Iran and Israel can achieve together. There will be so many possibilities.

“Iran is an untouched land for 46 years – no giant companies are there yet. Ninety million people in Iran love Western culture – they love to be in contact with other countries – they always wanted peace in the world.

“But in the past 46 years, look what happened, we are the fifth richest country in the world and look what happened.

“When we witnessed the outbreak of war, the world realized this regime is nothing but a paper tiger. They went from launching hundreds of ballistic of missiles to launching just six or seven.

“We are at the end of this very difficult path that we were in the past 46 years.” He added he thinks it will open things up for Iran to have free trade and booming businesses.

Speaking of his vision for the future of Israel and Iranian relations, he said: “We are culturally and historically great friends, look at what Cyrus the Great did, look what Queen Esther did – historically there was always a great relationship between these two nations, and will be again.

“Eighty per cent of Iranians thank Trump and Netanyahu for what they’re doing. These two names will be remembered in history, they are doing all the heavy lifting and work that the international world should have been doing years ago.”