Farnaz Fassihi

I think the Islamic Republic, as we knew it, is over.

I think the state that Mr. Khamenei ran, which was hostile to the U.S., hostile to its Arab neighbors, hostile to Israel, and defined militancy and terror and hostage-taking and repression of its own citizens, is not sustainable.

It's not sustainable and cannot survive in the new realities of the Middle East, where we've seen Israel sort of prioritize its safety and survival above all else post-October 7.

I don't think it is an Iran that will be tolerated by its restive population that want change.

And given all the attacks we've seen in the region and against Arab states, I don't think Iran's neighbors will tolerate that kind of a state and this feeling that they're at risk of being attacked and sort of an unpredictable government next door that nobody knows what it will do and how it will react.

And I don't think the United States will necessarily tolerate it either.

So I think all the odds are stacked against the Islamic Republic situation.

continuing as it has been for the past 47 years.

I'm Iranian American.

And on Friday, I thought that the possibility of ever visiting Iran, of visiting my father's gravesite, or seeing my elderly relatives was a distant dream.

Today, I have hope.

Of returning.

You know, that's what a lot of Iranians who've been exiled and who can't go back say.

They say that it's pretty bare minimum to want to see your relatives and visit your home country.

And it's a right that has been robbed from many people.

And I think many Iranians the world over have a glimmer of hope.

They dare to dream of a free Iran.

where political prisoners are free, where young people who take to the streets to demand for a better living are not shot and killed, and people are not struggling to make ends meet because it's a resource-rich country, where parents are not mourning their children.

Watching the videos of people taking to the streets and chanting freedom, freedom in reaction to Mr. Khamenei's killing, it may sound to an American or Western audience that this is a modest aspiration.

But I think for the Iranian people who have sort of long aspired and aspired