Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a stark warning: Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, and the Kremlin is likely to use them in Ukraine within weeks. Meanwhile, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s self-proclaimed ‘reformist’ president, defiantly declared that Tehran will never relinquish its missile program, insisting that such deterrence is vital in a region where Iran’s arch-enemy, Israel, can “drop missiles on Gaza every day.”

Blinken’s concern extends beyond the immediate conflict, characterizing Iran’s ballistic missile program as “a threat to all of Europe” and evidence of Iran’s “destabilizing influence” that stretches far beyond the Middle East. Western intelligence supports this alarm, indicating that Iran has supplied Russia with 4th-generation Khorramshahr long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching up to 2,000 kilometers. These missiles, supplied by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), signify a new escalation in Iran’s regional and now global aspirations.

At a press conference in London, Blinken disclosed that dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to operate the Fath-360, a short-range ballistic missile system with a maximum range of 75 miles. According to Blinken, Russia has already received shipments of these missiles and is poised to deploy them against Ukrainian targets imminently. These Iranian-built missiles are compact, lightweight, and can be mounted in clusters on truck-based launchers, making them a versatile addition to Russia’s military arsenal.

The British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, condemned this development as “a significant escalation.” At the same time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky finds himself in a precarious position as Western leaders hesitate to provide him with long-range U.S. and UK cruise missiles to counter these threats.

Zelensky’s frustration is understandable. Western hesitation in the face of Putin’s threats only emboldens the Kremlin. Putin’s ominous assertion that the U.S. and NATO would be at war with Russia if they allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles conveniently ignores his own use of Iranian missiles to strike civilian targets deep within Ukraine’s sovereign territory. The toll of this war is staggering, with hundreds of thousands of lives lost on both sides, including thousands of Ukrainian women and children. The hypocrisy of the European Union is glaring in this context: countries like France, Poland, and Hungary continue to purchase Russian gas while maintaining the façade of stringent economic sanctions against Putin and the Russian elite.

The West’s approach to Iran has been equally flawed. Years of appeasement, from blacklisting the Iranian resistance as a terrorist organization to the ill-fated JCPOA nuclear deal, have done little to curb Tehran’s belligerence. The release of tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets and the swapping of innocent European and American hostages for convicted Iranian criminals have only emboldened the regime. The mullahs perceive these gestures as signs of Western weakness, prompting them to double down on their aggressive policies.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a state that can be engaged under the conventional rules of international politics. It is a theocratic, authoritarian regime driven by ideological dogma that precludes any meaningful reform from within. The distinction between moderates and hardliners within the regime is a fallacy; all factions are accountable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, whose absolute power is wielded through violence, blackmail, and deceit. President Pezeshkian’s pledge to uphold Khamenei’s directives underscores this reality, as does his commitment to preserving Iran’s missile program and advancing its clandestine nuclear ambitions.

The West must confront this reality with a decisive strategy. The U.S., UK, and France should authorize Zelensky to deploy long-range missiles against military targets deep within Russian territory. Dialogue with the Iranian regime and its allies must end, and Western support should pivot towards the Iranian people and their resistance movements striving to overthrow the tyranny of the mullahs. Closing Western embassies in Tehran and expelling Iranian diplomats would send a clear message that the international community views the Islamic Republic as a pariah state. Such actions would also bolster the morale of the beleaguered Iranian population.

Furthermore, the European Union and the UK must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, as the U.S. and Canada have already done. Blacklisting the IRGC would disrupt its ability to fund, train, and support proxy forces such as Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The West must maintain unrelenting pressure on the Iranian regime for its ongoing human rights abuses and sponsorship of terrorism. Simultaneously, Western nations should extend comprehensive political and financial support to the Iranian resistance as the legitimate alternative to the current dictatorship, capable of leading a peaceful transition to democracy.

It is time for the West to stand firmly with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy. The downfall of the mullahs’ regime would dismantle the so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’—a coalition of autocracies that includes Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, and Iran—and could pave the way for a more peaceful global order.