Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told Iranian dissidents at a Paris gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran that the window for regime change is “open wider than at any moment in a generation,” urging opposition groups to seize what he framed as a historic opportunity against Tehran’s weakened rulers.
Speaking at the Free Iran 2026 conference on June 20-21, Kellogg said the Iranian regime is at its weakest point in decades. “The window is open wider than at any moment in a generation, and windows do not stay open forever,” he told the two-day event. “The theocratic regime in Tehran will not leave voluntarily. You must force it. The hope is here. Now must come the action.”
Kellogg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former special envoy for Ukraine, framed any disarmament agreement not as an endpoint but as “the first step of something far larger,” saying it should become the foundation for Iran’s future without the current regime. He invoked the NCRI’s 2002 disclosure of Iran’s Natanz and Arak nuclear sites, urging the opposition group to play a role in verifying any agreement. “When I say trust, but verify, understand that verification is not an abstraction to this Council,” he said. “You must be the conscience that ensures every barrel of uranium leaves, every centrifuge stops, and every promise on that page becomes a fact on the ground.”
The Trump administration has been advancing a new Iran deal even as Kellogg and others argue that the regime’s current vulnerabilities create an opening for deeper change. The Iranian regime has faced cascading pressures: military strikes have degraded its nuclear and missile capabilities, its economy has contracted under sanctions and war-related disruptions, and widespread protests have erupted over inflation and economic hardship since early 2026.
Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president-elect, used her remarks at the conference to argue that neither war nor negotiations had solved the threat posed by Tehran’s rulers. “A peaceful, non-nuclear Iran is possible only through the overthrow of this regime by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance,” Rajavi said. She added that any international agreement to end the war should include an end to executions of political prisoners and the killing of protesters.
The conference drew thousands of Iranian expatriates from North America and Europe, though French authorities banned a planned outdoor rally, citing security threats and intelligence about alleged bomb threats and risks of violence involving rival Iranian opposition factions. Despite the ban, demonstrators gathered at the site on June 20, and police ordered the crowd to disperse, arresting around 20 people, according to AFP. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticized the French ban, calling it a “tragic mistake” and saying Western capitals must allow Iranian opposition voices to be heard.
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also addressed the event, linking Ukraine’s struggle against Russia to the Iranian opposition’s fight against Tehran. He pointed to Iran’s support for Russia’s war effort, noting that drones using Iranian technology were striking Ukrainian cities alongside Russian missiles. “Like you, I know very well what it means to be attacked and killed and destroyed by the regime that currently holds its grip over the people of Iran,” Kuleba said.
Sources
- Fox News — Full reporting on Kellogg’s remarks at the Free Iran 2026 conference in Paris, his statements on regime weakness, the disarmament framework, and the NCRI’s role in verification; details on Rajavi’s speech, the French ban on the outdoor rally, and remarks by Johnson and Kuleba.
- National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) — Confirmation of the Free Iran 2026 conference dates and international participation.
- Agence France-Presse (AFP) — Reporting on the dispersal of demonstrators and arrests at the banned Paris rally site.
