After a 2022 assassination attempt in New York on novelist Salman Rushdie – the longtime object of Iranian assassination threats and fatwas going back to the 1988 publication of his book "The Satanic Verses" – the Kayhan newspaper, which publishes Ali Khamenei's positions, noted that "taking revenge on the perpetrators and criminals on American soil is not difficult and after this [attempted assassination of Rushdie], Trump and Pompeo will feel more threatened." Many other threats have been made against Trump by the highest officials of the Iranian regime, speaking of severe revenge for Trump's killing of Qasem Soleimani, a key architect of terrorism in the Middle East.

Before the failed assassination attempt on Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former vice president of the European Parliament and president of the International Committee in Search of Justice on Nov. 9, 2023, the theocratic regime of Iran had placed him on the foreign ministry's sanctions list. Immediately after the attempt on his life, and before being transferred to the hospital while unable to speak due to a bullet hitting his lower jaw, he communicated with the police by writing on his cellphone that his only enemy was the Iranian regime. Subsequent investigations showed that the mastermind of this crime was indeed traceable back to Iran. The fugitive criminal had been hired to assassinate Vidal-Quadras.

Recently, an Iranian woman was arrested in the Netherlands for financing this assassination attempt. The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine reported this week that the Iranian regime uses "criminal organizations for its assassinations."

In the midst of successive failures both within Iran and on the international stage, Khamenei is more in need of showcasing power than ever before to maintain his forces domestically and his proxy forces in the wider region. In the recent presidential elections, despite Khamenei's pleas and various coercions, only about 10% participated in the voting, a turnout that reflects essentially a boycott within Iran, the regime's unparalleled failure at suppression of opposition, and the growing quantitative and qualitative strength of the resistance units. Indeed, thousands of resistance units belonging to the People's Mujahedin of Iran – the core force of the democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI – managed to bring the regime's elections to a boycott with 20,000 promotional operations within just one month. Khamenei is well aware that this organized force could spark a major uprising that would make his downfall a real possibility.

On June 29, at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit held in Paris, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an inspiring speech, emphasizing the need for international support for the Iranian resistance movement.

"You all continue to be persecuted and prosecuted, and frankly, Western nations aren't doing enough to support your efforts. But I'm counting on the courageous men and women, some of whom I've had the chance to meet, who have become a nightmare for the regime. They will force change. They will obtain change. They force an offering to a brighter future for the people of Iran … Madam Rajavi, the Ten-Point Plan you have put forward is the solution. That day will come when it shatters the theocracy. It will break them to the very core. And the very leaders who are inflicting so much pain on the Iranian people today will be held accountable for all that they have done."

And Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and one-time presidential candidate, in her July 17 speech at the Republican National Convention, identified the Iranian regime as the primary cause of all the problems in the Middle East, saying: "Look at the Middle East. Every problem in that part of the world can be laid at the feet of Iran. The dictator to chant death to America are the bankrollers and weapons suppliers for Hamas and Hezbollah. They're behind the barbaric massacres and the hostage taking. Once again, compare Trump and Biden. Trump got us out of the insane Iran nuclear deal."