Both Iran and Israel were quick to claim victory after 12 days of war that killed 627 people in Iran and 28 in Israel.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared “victory over the fallacious Zionist regime” in a message posted on his X account on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed “a great victory” and praised what he called a valiant fight against Iran.
While leaders were eager to issue vitriolic declarations, civilians have been the ones to bear the brunt of the conflict, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi told The National.
“In war, there are no winners. Both sides, and especially innocent civilians, lose,” Ms Ebadi said in an interview.
Ms Ebadi is a vocal human rights activist and a staunch critic of Iran's Shiite clerical establishment. She was one of the country’s first female judges but was dismissed following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel launched unprecedented air strikes on Iran on June 13, declaring its goal was to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which was negotiating with the US on a deal to contain its nuclear programme, responded with missile barrages and drones. The tit-for-tat attacks escalated over nearly two weeks until US President Donald Trump declared a ceasefire this week.
Amnesty International denounced the conflict as a “reckless military action” in which civilians paid a “cruel” price and said both countries had repeatedly shown disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law.
“I'm very sorry that in this war civilians were killed in both countries, Iran and Israel,” Ms Ebadi said. “And I am also very upset to see that the bombing has destroyed much of Iran's infrastructure because even if this regime is toppled, the cost of rebuilding the country is going to be on the shoulders of the people.”
She expressed fear that the conflict might restart in the absence of long-term solution towards peace.
“Unfortunately, I must say that I believe the situation is fragile, and there is a real possibility the war could resume,” she said.
Although the ceasefire has held so far, questions about the path forward remain unanswered.
Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Tehran has expanded significantly while insisting it is for civilian purposes only, continues to be a point of contention.
Iran has rejected the US and Israel's demand that it hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, a component in nuclear weapons, and stop its enrichment programme. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran had no plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States.
While both countries managed to save face, with Israel claiming to have set back Iran’s nuclear programme by years, and the Iranian regime remaining in power, the core issue remains unresolved.
In an opinion article published in the French daily Le Monde during the war, Ms Ebadi and other prominent Iranians called for Iran to immediately stop its enrichment programme, and for a halt to attacks on infrastructure and to the massacre of civilians in both countries.
Regime change
Some Iranians in opposition groups exiled abroad had hoped Israel’s military campaign might weaken Iran enough to trigger mass protests and lead to the regime's overthrow.
Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, openly acknowledged on Wednesday that his country sought to target Iran’s supreme leader.
Ms Ebadi believes that a process leading to the eventual collapse of the Islamic Republic has already begun. But in a region where foreign intervention has often gone wrong, she insists that regime change must come from within Iran – and not through Israeli bombs.
“The fate of the Iranian people must be determined by the Iranian people themselves. Over the years, they organised many protests and stood up to this regime. Unfortunately, they have led to extreme crackdowns by the regime's forces,” she said.
The most recent uprising was the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, during which millions demanded an end to gender-based discrimination. The demonstrations were met with a violent response from the authorities.
Ms Ebadi spent months in Tehran's infamous Evin prison in 2000, where many political activists and dissidents are imprisoned. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three years later and has been living in self-imposed exile in London since 2009.
“Only the people of Iran have the right to determine Iran’s future,” she said, and called for a free referendum under UN supervision. “History has shown that governments challenged by their people eventually fall.”
