For decades, the ayatollahs of Iran operated under a comforting delusion: they believed they could murder their own people at home and export terror abroad with absolute impunity. They banked on the world’s short attention span and the fecklessness of international bodies.
But this week, that delusion has been shattered on three distinct fronts: in a courtroom in Buenos Aires, inside the starved cells of Iran’s prisons, and through the renewed financial stranglehold of the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, victims of the brutal crackdown on the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests filed a historic criminal complaint in Argentina against 40 senior Iranian officials for crimes against humanity. Using the principle of universal jurisdiction, these survivors are asking a federal court to do what the UN has failed to do: issue international arrest warrants for the men ordering the blinding, torture, and execution of Iran's youth.
The Butcher’s Bill: 99 Tuesdays of Defiance
The regime’s terror is not theoretical; it is accelerating. Just as the filing was landing in Argentina, political prisoners across 55 prisons in Iran marked a grim milestone: the 99th consecutive week of "No to Execution Tuesdays."
For nearly two years, a coalition of prisoners-from monarchists to Kurds to the MEK-have gone on hunger strike every Tuesday to protest the state’s killing machine. Their protest comes as the regime, terrified of its own population, goes on a killing spree.
In the first 11 months of 2025 alone, Tehran has executed 1,791 people, a record high for the last four decades. In just one recent week, 67 lives were extinguished by the state.
This is not a projection of strength; it is the panicked lashing out of a dying beast.
The Fear of a Woman: Narges Mohammadi Re-Arrested
Nothing illustrates the regime's cowardice more than the events of December 12. Security forces in Mashhad violently re-arrested Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Her "crime"? Attending a memorial service for Khosrow Alikordi, a human rights lawyer who died under suspicious circumstances.
Witnesses report that Mohammadi stood atop a vehicle, unveiled, chanting "Long Live Iran" and "Death to the Dictator" before security agents beat her and dragged her away by her hair. She is now being held incommunicado.
The image of a theocratic regime sending battalions of armed men to silence one unarmed, unveiled woman is the ultimate proof of its illegitimacy. They fear Narges Mohammadi more than she fears them.
The Trump Factor: Bankrupting the Terror
Why the surge in domestic violence? Because the regime is being squeezed from the outside. With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the "Maximum Pressure" campaign is back with a vengeance, and it is working.
Intelligence reports confirmed this week that Iran’s regional proxies-Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in Syria-are facing a catastrophic liquidity crisis. Fighters are complaining of unpaid wages; operations are being scaled back. The "Check has Bounced."
The Trump administration’s strategy is clear: dry up the funds that fuel the terror. As US officials noted this week, seeing terrorists "whine about running out of cash" is a sign that the sanctions are biting deep. Denied the resources to fight effective wars abroad, the regime is turning its violence inward, hoping to bludgeon its own population into submission before its bank accounts run completely dry.
The End of Impunity
The convergence of these events-the Argentina filing, the prisoner strikes, and the American financial blockade-creates a terrifying new reality for the Islamic Republic’s elite.
The legal filing in Buenos Aires means their world is shrinking. An IRGC general who orders fire on a crowd today may find himself arrested at an airport tomorrow. The hunger strikes prove that the spirit of resistance has breached the very walls of Evin Prison. And the US policy ensures they cannot buy their way out of trouble.
The message to the brave women of Iran, to the prisoners on their 99th Tuesday of hunger, and to the Western world is simple: The clock is ticking. The regime is cornered, broke, and lashing out.
Now is the time to increase the pressure, not relieve it. Argentina has opened the door to justice; the West must now walk through it.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx