DONALD Trump must stage an Iraq-style mass invasion to have any chance of toppling Iran’s regime, an opposition leader has warned.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, who was jailed for daring to oppose rulers, said hundreds of thousands of troops would have to flood .
US Marines pictured on patrol Credit: Getty
A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran Credit: AP
Despite ‘s rallying cry to Iranians to “take back their country” just hours into the war, the regime is still clinging to power two months on.
The Sun previously told how its , will “stop at no crime” to protect the regime.
Activists and analysts alike have warned it will take more than foreign intervention and bombings to put the final nail in the tyranny’s coffin.
Mohaddessin, the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said Trump would have to deploy a vast number of soldiers deep into enemy territory.
He said given the sheer size of the nation, it would be extremely difficult – if not impossible – to overthrow the regime just through bombings.
Strikes coupled with sanctions weaken it, Mohaddessin added, but would never be enough to spark a revolution.
He told The Sun: “To overthrow the regime, you need soldiers, forces on the ground. If the US wants to overthrow the regime, it needs soldiers on the ground, just as they did in Iraq in 2003.
“The Americans can send a commando team to Tehran for a specific operation, just as they did to rescue a pilot. But they cannot occupy Tehran [with a small number of troops].
“If they want to occupy Tehran, they must send ground troops from the borders all the way to Tehran.
“Tehran is far from Iran’s western borders – 500 to 600km away – and far from its eastern borders – 800 to 900km away – even farther from the southern borders, and a few hundred kilometres from the northern borders.
“Therefore, it is impossible to occupy Iran with a few thousand soldiers.
“Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would be needed to liberate Tehran or to occupy Iran, a country with a population of over 92 million.”
The regime’s future appears to be hanging by a thread following the obliteration of much of its nuclear empire by the US and Israel.
Many of its top brass – including – have also been wiped out.
Iran’s first Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power during the revolution of 1979 – ousting the Shah empire and transforming the state into a theocratic Islamic republic.
His bloody rule was taken over by Khamenei following his death a decade later.
Since then, Tehran has ramped up its nuclear ambitions and become an increasingly bigger threat to not only the Middle East, but the West too.
In a clear sign the regime is bleeding, Khamenei’s heir son Mojtaba has not been seen since he assumed power.
Iran rebels defy internet blackout to reveal they are READY to topple regime
Exclusive by , Deputy Foreign Editor
BRAVE Iranian rebels have broken through the regime’s internet blackout to tell The Sun: “We are ready to finally take our country back”.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s grisly downfall that saw him wind up dead in a pile of rubble has left the rogue nation’s repressed public wanting more.
One defiant Iranian told me: “The endgame feels real in a way it hasn’t before.”
Donald Trump hailed the chief mullah’s pathetic demise after his compound was blitzed as “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country”.
In a rallying cry to Iran’s population, the US president urged them to seize the opportunity to put the final nail in the nation’s bloodthirsty regime.
Courageous Iranians – whose identities we have concealed to protect them – say they are waiting for their moment to finally topple the regime as Khamenei’s inner circle desperately tries to cling to power.
Internet blackouts have made it extremely difficult to communicate but, with limited VPN connection, they have managed to share accounts.
During January’s deadly protests, when ruthless Khamenei ordered his revolutionary guards to show no mercy, critics told me .
But now, months on, the Supreme Leader is dead, and protesters are more certain than ever they could be on the brink of freedom.
One 27-year-old rebel living in Tehran told The Sun: “Many of us believed it was possible before, but those uprisings were never meant to be the final chapter by themselves.
“The regime survived by hiding behind proxies, money networks, and foreign lobbying.
“Now that mask is cracking and their hand is exposed, the endgame feels real in a way it hasn’t before.
“It’s a strange mix of relief and iron focus. People are glad to see operations striking terrorists – but the deeper feeling is impatience and readiness.
“Everyone is waiting for the moment it becomes our turn to reclaim Iran, and people talk about it out loud now. No more whispers.”
Courageous to finally end the regime once and for all.
Trump to the fanatical regime – and inspire an internal uprising.
Mohaddessin said: “You should also take into account the fact that the Iranian people are very patriotic people.
“They are not in favour of their country being occupied.
“Of course, they like and ask for other countries, foreign countries, the US or European countries to support them, but they do not want their country to be occupied.”
The ex-political prisoner said there is a “clear” strategy to overthrow the regime.
He said: “First, public uprising, the uprising of the people. And second, the organised resistance movement, the resistance units within Iran.
“Iranian society is a very, very discontented and volatile society.
“Inflation has reached 75 per cent according to official figures, the highest level of inflation since World War Two.
“And unemployment is somewhere around 25 per cent.
“The Iranian people want freedom; they want democracy. Therefore, a popular uprising is very important and very likely.”
In almost half a century of iron-fist ruling, Iranians have suffered economic hardship, repeated crackdowns – and untold bloodshed, including relentless executions of anyone who dared speak out against the regime.
Protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire during January’s protests Credit: AP
President Donald Trump had mulled putting boots on the ground in Iran Credit: AP
Military personnel of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division leave a helicopter during a demonstration drill Credit: AFP
During January’s bloody protests, up to 40,000 were killed, human rights groups say – while , bodies burnt with acid, and protester’s limbs broken.
Describing themselves as “walking shadows”, they live in fear – and now see a flicker of hope to finally be free from the shackles of the Islamic state.
It comes as in the country’s highest kill count since the post-Iraq war massacre of 1989.
Mohaddessin was himself was jailed after being arrested in 1975 by the Shah’s secret police over his links to the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
He was tortured behind bars and after the Islamic regime began its reign of terror and executions in the 1980s, he was forced into exile and fled to Paris.
“As long as this regime exists, they cannot put aside torture, execution, pressure on the people because the existence of the regime, the survival of the regime, is based on two elements,” Mohaddessin added.
“First, suppression inside Iran, execution and other forms of, other kinds of suppression.
“Second, to export terrorism and fundamentalism and warmongering behind of its borders.
“The best solution to decrease the level of executions is some kind of international condemnation, international punishment to the regime, who massacred 120,000 political prisoners in the last decades, including outside Iran.”
Floating hospitals, hovercrafts & drone lasers: Trump’s force ready to raid islands
Exclusive by
WARSHIPS the size of football fields equipped with hospitals and drone lasers have been deployed as Donald Trump gears up to seize Iran’s key islands.
Thousands of marines have been arriving in the war-torn region as the US president mulls whether to .
The Sun told how plans had been drawn up for Trump’s 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to storm vital island fortresses to unlock the Strait of Hormuz.
But now the has given its clearest sign yet of invasion intentions after ordering prefabricated bunkers for island occupations, sources say.
Guarded by ruthless IRGC agents armed to the teeth, insiders have warned wrestling these islands from Iran’s grip could be an extremely bloody battle.
IRGC island garrisons, gunboats and naval are so far being decimated by bunker-busting air bombardments as well as low-flying Apache helicopters and A-10 Thunderbolt jets.
But marines – – could encounter intense barrages of Iranian missiles and killer drones launched from virtually anywhere on Iran’s mainland.
Iran’s parliament speaker, ex-IRGC officer Bagher Ghalibaf, previously threatened to “rain down fire” on any invading US forces.
US Army War College professor Evan Ellis told The Sun: “Marines could become a drone magnet.”
Additional Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) with logistical support vessels are now on the way from bases in to bolster any capture efforts – putting muscle on Trump’s threat to capture Kharg.
The 11th Amphibious Ready Group with the landing dock support vessels and 2,500 Marines was sent to join the 31st MEU, with the same number of troops already on station around the Hormuz on USS Tripoli.
Reinforcements were due to arrive in the Middle East theatre – including a converted container ship equipped with an on board hospital of more than 100 beds.
Large numbers of wounded are expected in what could be a “dangerous” mission to gain control of the world’s main oil shipping lands being choked by the IRGC.
It comes as Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards yesterday in a major re-escalation that has tested the fragile two-week ceasefire.
And Trump has warned that US forces will have to “start dropping bombs again” if Iran does not concede to ‘s demands to give up its stash of highly-enriched uranium.
Iran has doubled down on its pledge to restrict ships passing through the waterway as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remains in place.
Mediators are now scrambling to secure further talks before the ceasefire expires this week.
The fragile ceasefire in place between the US and Iran is due to run out by Wednesday.
Iran on Saturday said it had received new proposals from the US, and Pakistani mediators were working to arrange another round of direct negotiations.
But Mohaddessin believes there is one overriding reason why Iran is resisting deals tabled.
“The regime has a very simple calculation regarding the war,” he said.
“They say the US cannot overthrow the regime through bombing, they are very certain of this.
“Second, they believe that if they accept the US’ conditions – or at least a significant portion of them – this will lead to a certain amount of chaos within the regime and weaken it from within.
“And it paves the way for a very powerful uprising. The regime’s leaders fear this scenario. They are also under great pressure because of the war.
“For example, if they give up their nuclear ambitions, tomorrow people within the regime – not just the Iranian people – will say to the leaders: Why did we spend so much money, why have we paid such a price?
“So chaos will begin within the regime.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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