There have been recent reports of the U.S. issuing maximal demands on the Islamic Republic of Iran to avoid a threatened military attack, and Islamist states such as Qatar, Turkey, and Oman encouraging the ayatollahs to give President Trump some concessions in order to avoid a war. Reported U.S. demands include a permanent end to nuclear enrichment, limiting the quantity and reach of its ballistic missiles, and cessation of support for its terror proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Recently, as well, EU foreign ministers have adopted new sanctions on Iran, targeting both leaders and organizations that are involved with the unprecedented violence and brutality targeting and massacring Iranian civilians.
All this sounds good, hard-hitting, and maybe even hopeful. But the truth is, one cannot negotiate with Islamic terrorists in general, and the Islamic Republic specifically. Ever.
Sadly, I know this firsthand from my experience growing up and spending most of my life in Iran. I know this because of the brutality I witnessed, including the regime killing my husband and executing my best friend. I know this from my arrest and imprisonment because I converted to Christianity, a "crime" the ayatollahs deem "apostasy" and which is punishable by death.
I experienced this personally in many ways, and have written about many experiences in my two books and numerous articles. There's only one exception. The only time any agent of the regime showed any kindness, any mercy, any humanity was when they had a change of heart and understood that the truth did not exist under the turbans of the ayatollahs and in the Koran, but through Jesus and in the Bible.
The United States must disregard Qatar, Turkey, and Oman as bad actors that promote their own extremist Islam. Other than using the Islamic practice of taqiyah, to lie to and deceive the world, the Islamic Republic has no regard for the well-being of Iranian citizens, much less of people anywhere else.
Tens of thousands have been slaughtered in cold blood in the past month, and hundreds of thousands more injured. Perpetuating the fraud of negotiations will only lead to more and worse bloodshed.
One story I experienced and recounted in my books is hard for Westerners to believe, but it is most telling in terms of what will come. The leaders of the Islamic Republic are common practitioners of witchcraft. It's not public, but it's well known. In one of the scariest encounters I have had, I met the private witch of former president Ahmadinejad. He revealed this to me personally. He explained, as if it was normal, that as part of a battle against America and Israel, the regime needs many more sacrifices and the shedding of blood of Iranian citizens. It's essential to their demonic tactics. That is why they have killed thousands, and they are going to kill more as soon as America attacks.
That sounds absurd, I know. That the government of a country will massacre tens of thousands of its own citizens, all as part of a war against America and Israel. But I believe the orders have been issued, and they are just waiting to pull the trigger.
I am sure that the ayatollahs, through their demonic witches and frightening messianic Islam, have decided that as soon as U.S. attacks begin, rather than defending the Iranian people, the regime will turn its weapons on them, targeting densely populated residential areas within Iran.
And yet, without the Internet, the Islamic Republic will miraculously find a way to release images of all the victims in order to fool the world, and manipulate global public opinion against America and Israel, and in favor of the Islamic Republic.
These horrific images will be released to Arab media outlets and other agents of the Islamic Republic, which will gleefully promote the lies, not questioning the veracity of these or how they got the bandwidth to share them. The rest of the world media will follow like a hungry dog looking for scraps.
Images of dead women and children will be particularly horrific. In a communications blackout – it's nearly impossible for Iranians like me to reach loved ones still there – they need to be told not to send their children to school because the schools will be the first targets. It's not a theory; they have already done this.
The regime is introducing public places as shelters, like underground train stations, but this is a tactic to trick thousands of people and then bomb these shelters themselves. They may also force civilians to be human shields to protect their underground bunkers and weapons.
They will try to turn the limited global outrage against the Islamic Republic and "Supreme Leader" Khamenei to make President Trump the perpetrator. Americans on the Left and the Right will lap this up: the Left looking for any excuse to blame Trump for anything, and the Right looking to decry any foreign intervention that will be spun as America being manipulated by Israel.
By "sacrificing" Iranians, the regime will both take revenge on and instill fear among the people of Iran for the recent protests, and deceive public opinion globally. Publicizing the truth before the slaughter begins will undermine their propaganda. Iranians will suffer, but we cannot let the ayatollahs twist the truth and deflect the blame. The Iranians' blood is on their hands.
Iranians are desperately praying, as I am, that President Trump will make good on his threat of military action against the regime. Tens of thousands of Iranians have been slaughtered, executed in cold blood, in the past month alone.
We know that when the U.S. attacks the regime, it will turn its guns on Iranians to massacre even more.
We know that the regime will unleash its weapons on American bases in the Middle East, and possibly its agents in the U.S. and the West as well, to kill as many as possible, fulfilling the chant, "Death to America."
We know that the regime will unleash its weapons on Israel as well, as a last ditch effort to kill as many Israelis as possible, fulfilling the chant "Death to Israel" with which they have brainwashed Iranian children for generations, and try to unite what's left of the support for the regime inside Iran, and among Arab and Muslem extremists around the world by deflecting blame on Israel.
Friends in Israel have shared that they know this is coming. One even said that he accepts that, and anything that may come of it, if it means a decisive destruction of the Islamic Republic. Anything less than that will just be kicking the can down the road and allow the regime to continue its slaughter of Iranians, and threatening the rest of the world.
Never before have we heard Iranians repeating that they prefer to die in a war, but to make sure this regime is eliminated so that our next generation lives in freedom. It's not rhetoric; this is a civil war against the evil Islamist tyrants.
The end of the Islamic Republic must be the only objective; otherwise, we will be back in the same place. From there, Iranians will stop being brutalized and slaughtered, Iran will become free, Israel will stop living under the threat of the regime and all its terror proxies, and the West will have eliminated a direct threat to its own values, the safety and well-being of its citizens, and their very countries.
Join me in prayer that God will defeat demonic witchcraft plots by the regime and save innocent Iranians.
Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the U.S. after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is the author of two books (the latest, "A Love Journey with God"), a public speaker, and a columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran. Visit www.MarzisJourney.com.
Marzi is also the founder and president of NEW PERSIA, whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians.