Human rights advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman has reiterated her opposition to the Israeli-American military campaign against Iran while expressing strong support for the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the ruling clerical establishment.

In a message addressed to Iranian opposition figures, including Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Karman affirmed her solidarity with the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and democracy, emphasizing that their revolution against the “rule of the mullahs” deserves international backing.
The statement came in response to an invitation from the Iranian Resistance for Karman to participate in one of its conferences.

Karman said she stands “firmly with the Iranian people’s revolution and their resistance to overthrow the mullahs’ regime,” stressing that the Iranian people deserve freedom, democracy, and an end to authoritarian religious rule.

At the same time, she voiced clear opposition to the ongoing war against Iran, arguing that the military campaign is unlikely to produce a democratic transition. Instead, she warned, such a conflict risks devastating the country’s resources and imposing political arrangements shaped by external powers rather than by the Iranian people themselves.

According to Karman, these arrangements could preserve elements of the existing regime while subordinating Iran to outside influence and enabling control over the country’s national wealth—particularly its oil resources—similar to experiences seen in other countries.

“For this reason, I reject this war, as do many free people around the world,” Karman said, adding that opposing military escalation does not diminish support for the Iranian people’s struggle for change.

She concluded by reaffirming her support for Iran’s democratic opposition and its efforts to end clerical rule and establish a free and democratic state.

The remarks reflect a position increasingly articulated by some international activists: rejecting foreign military intervention while endorsing the Iranian people’s right to pursue political change through their own resistance movements.

The following is Tawakkol Karman’s message to the Iranian Resistance:

Dear Friend Atika,
Warm greetings to Leader Maryam Rajavi.

I stand firmly with the Iranian people’s revolution and their resistance to overthrow the mullahs’ regime, and with supporting them in every form that helps them achieve this goal. The Iranian people deserve freedom, democracy, and an end to tyrannical clerical rule.

At the same time, I oppose this war, because its purpose is not to replace this regime with a democratic alternative in which the Iranian opposition has a genuine role in building and governing, but rather to destroy the resources of the Iranian people and impose political arrangements that may preserve figures from within the regime, yet under subordination to external powers—facilitating control over the country’s wealth, especially oil, as has happened in other experiences such as Venezuela.

Therefore, I reject this war, as do many free people around the world. At the same time, we continue to support and endorse the Iranian people’s revolution and opposition, in order to liberate Iran from tyrannical clerical rule and to build a free and democratic state.