"The Game Is Over! Put Down Your Weapons and Step Down From Power"
Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Statement from House Arrest
Mir-Hossein Mousavi is a prominent Iranian politician and opposition figure who served as the country’s prime minister from 1981 to 1989. He ran as a reformist candidate in Iran’s 2009 presidential election, the disputed results of which ignited nationwide protests that came to be popularly known as the Green Movement. In February 2011, Mousavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, and fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi were placed under house arrest, where they have remained since. Despite their isolation, they have periodically managed to issue public statements amid key sociopolitical moments. These statements are typically conveyed through a network of supporters, family members, and advisers, who disseminate them via trusted websites or social media platforms.
On January 29, 2026, in a statement issued from house arrest addressing the killing of thousands during the most recent protests, Mousavi directly confronted Iran’s ruling elites and condemned the violent suppression of dissent. He declared the existing political order illegitimate and called on those in power to step down. Mousavi advocated for a peaceful transition rooted in popular sovereignty, including a constitutional referendum, while rejecting external intervention.
The statement has sparked widespread debate and provoked sharp reactions across Iran’s political and intellectual landscape. Some prominent activists, including Bahareh Hedayat, responded with anger and disdain, arguing that Mousavi no longer possessed the legitimacy to speak on behalf of the current movement. Other intellectuals, such as political activist and sociologist Hesam Salamat, criticized the confrontational and exclusionary language of Hedayat’s commentary, arguing that restraint, dialogue, and ethical engagement present the only viable path forward. The full texts of Hedayat’s and Salamat’s responses, translated by Naghmeh Sohrabi, are available on her page, These Are the True Things. I encourage readers to engage with all three texts (Mousavi, Hedayat, and Salamat), as they collectively illuminate the range of perspectives within the opposition and the competing visions for reform.
The text that follows is my translation of Mousavi’s statement, produced as part of a collaborative effort to engage with a wide spectrum of perspectives published inside Iran.
Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Statement from House Arrest
The game is over! Put down your weapons and step down from power
In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
A dark page has been added to the long history of our nation—one the likes of which Iran does not recall. With each passing day, the horrifying dimensions of what took place become more evident. A great betrayal and a grave crime has been committed against the people. Homes are in mourning. [Streets] and alleys are in mourning. Cities and parishes are in mourning. After years of escalating repression, this is a catastrophe that will be remembered for decades and centuries. And the river of warm blood of the dispossessed that flowed on the ground in the cold month of Dey [January] will not cease to boil until it changes the course of history.
In what language must the people say that they do not want this system and do not believe your lies? Enough is enough. The game is over. Your oppression has come back to haunt you, and the Zaqqum trees you planted have borne fruit.1 When you donned your battle gear against your own people, you were striking an axe at your own roots. When you crushed those who cared for the people and allowed not even the slightest just word in defense of human rights, you were rolling out the red carpet for foreign intervention. When you plugged your ears to avoid hearing the advice of the well-intentioned, you were, through ignorance, squandering your most precious opportunities. Now it is your turn. Nothing shall remain of you, too, but a story—a story full of blood and violence. Enough is enough. Neither do you have a solution to any of the country’s crises, nor do the people have a choice but to protest again until they get a result. And you will not be able to repeat the catastrophe of the eighteenth and nineteenth of Dey [January 8 and 9]. This is a burden that the military and security forces will sooner or later—and likely sooner—refuse to carry. Put down your weapons and step down from power so that the people themselves may lead this land to freedom and prosperity.
The path that this humble companion of the people proposes is to hold a constitutional referendum by forming an all-encompassing front, inclusive of all the nation’s [political] preferences, based on three principles of foreign non-intervention, rejection of domestic tyranny, and peaceful democratic transition. This is because the establishment of lasting peace and security and rescuing the country from the grip of ruling despotism—grounded in the will and desire of the people—is only possible by the hands of the people and without foreign intervention.
O God, hear the cry that Your oppressed servants bring to you from the depths of their souls to Your presence, and answer their prayers for a free and prosperous Iran. This alone is the consolation that will soothe the grieving hearts of our people. And when the prisoners are freed, the first to be liberated will be [of] Your own faith who, after a long captivity in the grasp of those who trade in religion, will once again see the Muhammadian smile of the sun.
For Iran—and especially for its emerging generation—I wish dignity and prosperity.
Mir Hossein Mousavi
January 29, 2026
According to the Quran, Zaqqum is a cursed tree only found in the depths of hell. The tree’s fruits are food for the sinful. The fruits boil and burn their insides, symbolizing the dire consequences of evil deeds.