Although headlines around the world have zeroed in on Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s past crimes against humanity following his election victory last month, there has been less analysis about the meaning of his ascent when it comes to human rights, the rule of law, freedom and justice. The international community must prepare to prevent another series of humanitarian catastrophes in Iran. Leading human rights organization Amnesty International has documented Raisi’s role in the 1988 massacre of at least 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority of whom were affiliated with the principal Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq. Acclaimed human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has called the massacre the “worst crime against humanity since the concentration camps of the Second World War.” And the UN’s top official on Iran last month called for an international probe. So why are US authorities silent about this egregious human rights violation? Without doubt, Raisi is the personification of a callous dictatorship that spares no effort to eradicate opposition. He has been summoned to be president to escalate the brutal suppression that began in earnest in the 1980s, soon after the regime usurped power. But the tides of popular opposition have hardly subsided since then. In fact, resentment toward the regime is today at an all-time high, while the regime’s power and legitimacy is at an all-time low. A case in point was the abysmally low turnout during the June 18 presidential election, which was widely boycotted by the people. An unrelenting surge in economic and social grievances is morphing into political demands that are rapidly coalescing around a core appeal: Regime change. Faced with this crisis, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has run out of options. He can neither meet the people’s demands nor moderate his regime’s behavior. To stay in power, he simply has to resort to violence and murder. The West should clue in. By purging rival factions, Khamenei has also extinguished any semblance of moderation, which for so long offered the West’s leaders unrealistic expectations of the regime’s future and fooled them into granting Tehran concession after concession. During the June presidential election, the candidate described as “moderate” or “reformist,” Abdolnaser Hemmati, got fewer votes than the number of spoiled ballots. This popular rejection of the moderates as cronies of the regime marks the end of a deceptive journey that only served to prolong the regime’s rule. Now, the chant on the streets is: “Reformers, hard-liners, the game is over.” There are two trends that will define the future for Iran. First, the people’s defiance of the regime will intensify because the number of profound crises that have produced real hardship will continue to multiply. Second, the regime’s answer to mass protests will likely be mass murder. The battle lines are being drawn. Two opposing camps are facing off against one another. On one side, the Iranian people are uniting against the entire regime and around a common cause, namely a democratic republic that would be accountable to them, not an unelected mullah. On the other side, the Iranian regime is bracing for an all-out war against its own people and the international community. Facing the real prospect of being overthrown by mass uprisings, the regime has installed a ruthless functionary to eradicate all dissent. President-elect Raisi is the personification of a callous dictatorship that spares no effort to eradicate opposition. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh The Iranian people are doing their part. In addition to protests inside Iran, the three-day Free Iran World Summit — a virtual gathering of tens of thousands of Iranians — is scheduled to begin on Saturday. More than 1,000 prominent dignitaries and human rights advocates from around the world will join them to support a free Iran and a future shaped by democracy, a pluralistic and non-nuclear republic, gender equality, respect for international laws, adherence to human rights, and peace. Raisi is already on the US list of sanctioned human rights violators, so the Biden administration has a chance to prove it is serious about its declared human rights agenda. The prevention of humanitarian catastrophes in Iran should be high up its list of priorities. The rules-based international order will be severely damaged if criminals like Raisi are given the space to operate freely. Washington should loudly declare its support for the Iranian people as they struggle to overthrow the regime and establish a secular, free and non-nuclear republic. While the international community failed to prevent the 1988 massacre, it now has a choice. It can either appease the regime of murderers and remain passive as the mullahs gear up to kill more innocent protesters, or it can take the moral high ground by launching an international investigation into the 1988 killings, calling for Raisi’s prosecution at an international tribunal and warning the regime that any future atrocities will have consequences. Tehran’s impunity must end; otherwise the regime will go on to commit more crimes against humanity and massacres that could have been prevented. Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view