Berlin, Germany – On Saturday, February 7, 2026, 70th Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered remarks calling on the international community to support the democratic uprising in Iran, and to come to the aid of the Iranian people suffering under the Ayatollah’s brutal crackdown.
Speaking via livestream video to a crowd of thousands gathered in Brandenburg Gate, Secretary Pompeo said, “What we’re seeing today isn’t just a protest movement; it’s a revolution.” He added, “Iran can only be freed by those who have sacrificed for decades, who have paid the highest price. Who have withstood massacres and imprisonments. It can only be freed by the organized democratic resistance.”
A stalwart opponent of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since 1979, Secretary Pompeo is a long-standing supporter of Iran’s democratic opposition movement. In his remarks, he noted that “The Iranian people have made their preference abundantly clear in repeated waves of uprisings: They want a republic that is free, democratic, and accountable to the citizenry.”
Secretary Pompeo argued that the Islamic Republic is a “moribund dictatorship” conducting a campaign of mass murder against its own people, concluding that “Supporting a free Iran isn’t just the right thing to do; it is a strategic necessity that will make the world a far safer and more prosperous place.”
70th Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Delivered Remarks at the “Free Iran Rally,” Berlin, Germany
February 7, 2026
I wish I could be there, but travel simply wouldn't permit. Mrs. Rajavi gave an inspiring speech today, and the world is better for it.
But as I begin, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the passion, the dedication, the astounding bravery of the Iranian people. Many people both in Iran and in the diaspora have sacrificed so much to free your country. Bless you.
It's also the case that you all came out today to be there in Berlin at this special place, the Brandenburg Gate, braving the cold to stand here today in support of a free Iran. To many of you, many of you in the audience here, many of you in the audience there at Ashraf 3 who are watching, you who have been displaced, forced into exile, survived imprisonment, torture, many of you have lost loved ones in this struggle. To you, as an American, I want to say thank you. To you and the young people who I just saw on the stage singing the beautiful anthem along with Mrs. Rajavi, to you, all of you, you are the future of Iran. Thanks to your efforts, God willing, the Iranian people will very soon be free.
This place you are standing in front of today, the Gate, was a hinge point in world history. Today, it is unequivocal, unmistakable, that we are at a hinge point in Iran's history. We can see it. The people are fed up, fed up with a murderous, corrupt, and incompetent government that can't even fulfill the basic needs of its citizens. And while there are tens of thousands today in Germany, there are millions of people that have taken to the streets of Iran in towns all across the country to say the simple fact that enough is enough, and today this hinge point in history must be honored.
What we're seeing in Iran today isn't just a protest movement; we've seen those before. This is a revolution. And so it is fitting that we gather here today on the 47th anniversary of the revolution that took place in 1979, which first rose up against the autocratic leadership to demand freedom and human rights, but whose movement was co-opted by the Ayatollah. Back then, those patriots suffered torture, imprisonment, and exile. They have kept the flame burning, preparing for this very moment—a moment when it would be possible to take back their country.
My friends, that moment has arrived.
There is no going back to the dark days of Iran. Forward, forward together.
You know, it's been said that you become your truest self as you approach death, and that is certainly the case for this evil dictatorship, which has spent the last six weeks on a murderous rampage against its own people. The regime has shown its true colors as it is hearing its death, the death of this regime. Now, I've seen different numbers, but the massacre of January 8 and 9 killed at least 20,000, perhaps twice that many.
These brave Iranians, murdered by the state, murdered by the Ayatollah and his henchmen. You know, in some ways the behavior we've seen each time the Iranian people have risen up to demand their basic human rights reflects precisely what happened this week. But this was truer. This was a testament not only to the malevolence that has always been the beating heart of the dictatorship, but also to the evidence of its profound weakness: a regime lacking popular legitimacy and completely unable to deliver for its own people. It has only one remaining instrument of control: the attempt to instill fear in its people.
This will not succeed. The Iranian people will prove fearless. I can feel it. I know it. I've spoken to many of you in the past years, but today, both internally and externally, the situation is far more dire for the Iranian leadership. The economy is in shambles due to a combination of incompetence and corruption, massive international isolation, and a poisonous mindset. The West has decimated the regime's proxy forces across the region and severely weakened the Iranian military infrastructure. It has left the regime without its most powerful insurance policy: a nuclear program that was thriving.
So whether it occurs today, or tomorrow, or five years from now, the collapse of the Islamic Republic is 100% inevitable. So the question becomes—the question becomes for you—what will replace it?
The Iranian people have made their preference clear, abundantly clear, in repeated waves of uprisings. They do not want theocracy, they do not want autocracy, they do not want a monarchy. They want a republic that is free, democratic, and accountable to the citizenry. Thanks to the bravery of Iran's organized political opposition, there is a real opportunity for this positive change and liberation of the Iranian people.
The uprisings that we have seen in these past days, they didn't come out of nowhere; they did not spring from oblivion. They are rooted, these uprisings, in a resistance now four decades in the making by Iran's pro-democracy movement. Mrs. Rajavi, your movement has built the capacity for popular support, and a systemic plan has been laid out that leads to the replacement of a moribund, murderous rule with a government that reflects the will of the Iranian people.
Those of you sitting in Albania in Ashraf, you know that the relentless persecution of this movement is a testament to your power. In addition to the brutal repression, the regime invests significant resources into sowing discord within the pro-democracy movement inside of Iran and in the diaspora. But we—we here today—we all know the truth. And it is always the truth that will set us free.
Now, America—the American people—wants to see the people of Iran thrive and to become a democratic, prosperous regional power. We want to see the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism replaced with a government that represents the interests of the Iranian people, not murderous extremists. The prospect of a democratic Iran that seeks peace and prosperity would be transformative, certainly for the people of Iran, but also for every nation in the region: for Israel, for the Gulf states, and for the world. To achieve that, we need a policy that is grounded in a strategic and moral clarity.
As you all know, I had the incredible privilege to work as United States CIA director and then as the 70th Secretary of State for President Trump. When we came to office, we inherited a set of policies that were providing resources, prosperity, and support for the Iranian regime. It was a policy of appeasement on steroids.
But President Trump understood that this regime was fundamentally incapable of reform—that terror and cruelty are embedded in the regime's DNA. So instead, we chose a different path. So instead of supplying the Ayatollah with pallets of cash to use to brutalize his own people and to support a global terrorism regime, we initiated a maximum pressure campaign. We re-established deterrence. We took down one of their most important leaders, General Qasem Soleimani.
With the return of President Trump to the White House, we have seen that maximum pressure policy continue. We see just today the United States placed even more sanctions on Iranian crude oil and on the regime. President Trump has repeatedly vowed to come to the aid of the Iranian people—those people slaughtered by the regime. It is my sincerest hope, and I am confident that he will keep this promise. And we should all continue, and America should continue, to cut off the lifelines and hasten the regime's demise.
But we also must be clear that the policy of the United States is to support the Iranian people today and tomorrow and forever. We know too that any deal with this regime cannot lead to peace and prosperity. So the only deal that is acceptable is a transition to a government that honors and respects the will of the Iranian people. For the regime cannot be overthrown from outside. The people of Iran will only be freed by those who have sacrificed for decades, those who have paid the highest price, from those in massacres like the one we have seen in past days, and the imprisonment that has taken place over these past years.
Iran and its people can only be free by an organized democratic resistance. Mrs. Rajavi has laid out a roadmap: a roadmap for the regime's end and, most importantly, a transition period, one that supports and relies upon the Iranian people and the resistance that sits inside of Iran. Free elections quickly to overthrow the regime, separation of religion and state, gender equality so that women participate in the free Iran, and a non-nuclear nation that does not threaten its neighbors and the world. It's important to note that the plan forward does not ask for the United States to put soldiers—its young men and women—on the ground. It does not ask for money from outside. No, the only demand for the resistance is the recognition of the Iranian people's right to bring about the end of their regime, the right of the resistance to combat the regime's repressive forces, most specifically the IRGC.
I've been speaking to you present today and to the Iranian people. But a quick note for those in the West: for those in the West who continue to labor under this misapprehension that there's no alternative to the current government, you are wrong on every level. To allow this regime to stay in place, to make a deal to allow this regime to stay in place, erases the aspirations of millions of Iranians who have risked their lives. It ignores the nature of this regime and perpetuates the regime's propaganda that the world must tolerate its brutality because the alternative is chaos. This is not true. There is an alternative in front of us here and in the towns and cities across your beautiful country. It will be a glorious thing.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do not know the exact hour of freedom, just as the people of Germany did not know the exact date in which the Brandenburg Gate would open. But we know that the barbaric regime of the Ayatollah and his cronies will never again have the power over the Iranian people that it had just in the past few weeks. The future of Iran—the future of Iran—is in your hands, those who have sacrificed and suffered.
I pray that all of the world's leaders—leaders in nations all across the world, lead nations of every faith and every religion—I pray that they will fulfill their promise to defend the Iranian people and support their aspirations for freedom. And I pray—I pray that the next time we meet, it will be in Tehran. Thank you. Thank you so much. God bless you. God bless the freedom-loving people of Iran, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you, God bless you.