“Mehdi Mahmoudian” Addresses Ali Khamenei: “The Enemy Has No Need to Attack from Outside”
Mehdi Mahmoudian, a political activist imprisoned in Evin, addressed Ali Khamenei saying: “The enemy has no need to attack from outside.”
Mehdi Mahmoudian, a journalist, political activist and civil society figure, was transferred to Evin Prison on February 4, 2025 (15 Bahman 1403) to serve an eight-month prison sentence. After two days, in a phone call from Evin Prison, he announced that he had gone on a dry hunger strike and stopped taking medication in protest against unjust verdicts and repression.
On April 8, 2025 (18 Farvardin of the current year), he wrote a letter from prison addressed to Ali Khamenei and sent it. In this letter, he held Ali Khamenei responsible for Iran’s current crises and emphasized that his decisions have led Iran toward internal collapse and regional instability.
His letter was published as Donald Trump has repeatedly warned the Islamic Republic of Iran in recent weeks that it has only two options: a new nuclear agreement with America or paying a heavy price.
In this regard, Mehdi Mahmoudian sent a letter to Ali Khamenei in which he wrote: “For years we have been moving at an accelerated pace on the path of national, cultural, and economic collapse, and you have not only failed to be the brakes on this movement, but have appeared as its driving engine. Every decision you make, every obstinacy, every sermon, every appointment, and every act of repression has been a step toward collapse.
In today’s perilous world, a country that lacks internal cohesion and external rationality can easily turn into a battlefield and be dismembered. Regional instability, the danger of military attack, crippling sanctions, internal repression, and accumulated hatred in the hearts of millions of young people have brought Iran to the brink of an abyss today. This is not just a warning; it is an everyday reality.
By closing the paths to reform, rejecting all elites, repressing civil society, humiliating ethnicities and religions, eliminating republicanism, and disregarding the constitution even in its mere appearance, you have brought Iran to a place where not only the people, but the main pillars of the system no longer feel secure. You have thrown Iran from the rooftop of legitimacy into the streets of distrust and hatred.”
In this letter, he warned Ali Khamenei and added: “Today’s situation is no longer just the suppression of one protest or political discontent. Through your decisions over these years, you have set province against province, ethnicity against ethnicity, and citizen against citizen. If war breaks out, the enemy will have no need to attack from outside; you have sown the seeds of hatred in hearts, and this land will collapse from within on its own.
Today, if a country attacks Iran, from which united nation do you expect defense? From a people whose children you have executed? From ethnicities whose languages you have banned? From a young generation that sees escape from Iran as its only path to salvation? You have destroyed all the bridges behind you.”
At the end of his letter, this political activist wrote: “Today, neither the JCPOA will save us, nor negotiations, nor the illusory power that exists in your mind. The only thing that can save Iran is your unconditional withdrawal from all power, handing it over to the people, and accepting the reality that no one is eternal, even if thousands of Revolutionary Guards, judges, and preachers hang your picture in offices every day. Otherwise, what will remain is neither your system nor even our country; only a bitter ruin of the memory of a nation that was once called Iran.”
Before Mehdi Mahmoudian, many civil and political activists had also sent warning letters to Ali Khamenei. Mostafa Mohseni, a sociologist and university professor, also announced in an interview that he had sent three open letters addressed to Ali Khamenei, in which he explicitly called for Ali Khamenei to step down from power and apologize to the people for his actions.
