Jerusalem, 24 June, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- As questions swirled about the viability of a ceasefire on Tuesday, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky argued that the nature of any pause in the conflict will be crucial in determining whether it empowers or undermines the prospects of regime change in Tehran.
“If this is a ceasefire that immediately gives the feeling that the authorities in Iran completely regain control and strength, and no one in the world will touch them, then this is bad,” Sharansky cautioned in an interview with The Press Service of Israel. Such an outcome would likely cause “people in Iran to stop fighting.”
Conversely, a ceasefire that demonstrates the regime’s weakness while maintaining international pressure could create conditions for internal change, he explained.
Sharansky, now 77, spent nine years in Soviet prisons for his human rights activism and for trying to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s. After being released in 1986, he briefly entered Israeli politics, then became a prominent international advocate for freedom and democracy.