The Iranian government is the problem
For most of 2026, the world’s most important oil chokepoint has been a battlefield rather than a shipping lane. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has spent months asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz. They have become the central obstacle to reopening one of the world’s most economically vital waterways.But the standoff over Hormuz is not really a story about the IRGC acting on its own. It is a story about Iran’s central government—the theocratic, unelected leadership structure the IRGC exists to protect—using every tool at its disposal, from a shipping chokepoint to live ammunition in city streets, to survive. As long as that government structure remains standing, the freedom Iranians risked their lives for this past winter will keep receding.Iran’s constitution places ultimate authority not with its elected president or parliament but with the Supreme Leader and the unelected bodies around him: the Guardian Council, which vets every…
The article argues that Iran's central government, a theocratic and unelected leadership structure, is the primary obstacle to freedom and stability, not just the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC serves as the enforcement arm of this system, which is controlled by the Supreme Leader and unelected bodies like the Guardian Council. This government's economic mismanagement and corruption led to a nationwide uprising in late 2025, which it met with severe repression, including mass killings and an internet shutdown. The government then initiated an external war, using it as a diversion and to further criminalize dissent. The article contends that the government is structurally designed to resist reform, with the Guardian Council filtering candidates and the IRGC suppressing opposition. Any resolution to international crises, such as the Strait of Hormuz standoff or the war, that does not dismantle this core governmental structure will fail to address Iran's internal issues of freedom and human rights.
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