High tension as the world awaits Iran’s response to our attacks
After the US attacked Iran, major cities increased security as US agencies issued alerts and world leaders encouraged them to get detached.
London – The Last Shah of Iran – the Persian banished son for the “king” – Before fleeing the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Iranian priesthood regime and its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought “step-down” and “face justice.”
64-year-old Reza Pahlavi was the heir to the Iranian “peacock throne” when the dynasty led by his father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was expelled. He lives in the United States, and his supporters often refer to him as the “Crown Prince of Iran.”
Pahlavi said at a press conference in Paris on June 23 that he was ready to help Iran “down the path of peace and democratic transition,” claiming that without providing concrete evidence, he saw credible reports that Khamenei and other Iranian regime officials were preparing to flee with his family as they joined Israel’s bombing campaign at Israeli nuclear power plants.
“The army is being destroyed,” Pallavi said. “People are united. The foundations of tyranny over the last 46 years are shaking. This is our moment in the Berlin Wall. But like every moment of great change, it is a great danger.”
Pahlavi added that he has a “direct message” to Khamenei. He said he would set up a new “safe platform” for the regime’s dissidents and internal opposition, and coordinate efforts to place the country on a path to a “free and democratic” future.
Khamenei’s office could not be reached for comment. It was also not clear whether Pahlavi had received a particular crime that he wanted to see the trial of Iran’s supreme leader, or whether it was a generalized comment about Iran’s leadership.
Still, Pahlavi has many admirers in the Iranian diaspora who support his return to monarchy, but it is unclear how popular he is in the country.
And almost everything he said in Paris, he has said variations for decades. In fact, most Iranians are not old enough to remember their lives before the 1979 revolution. Reflecting on nostalgia in pre-revolutionary times or recall deep inequality and oppression.
Pahlavi Senior was a US-backed dictator who used secret police and tortured the enemy. He died of cancer in Egypt in 1980. According to his official biographies published in 1963, Khamenei himself was tortured by Shah’s henchmen when he served as the first condition of many prison conditions for political activity.
Iran’s opposition beyond the “Crown Prince”
Apart from the monarchists of Pahlavi, another major opposition group outside of Iran is the mujahideen organization of people, also known as the MEK. The MEK was founded in the 1970s and led a bloody guerrilla campaign against the Shah, but lost its power struggle with Iranian Muslims after the Shah fell.
Many Iranians did not allow the MEK for surveillance with Iraq during the war with Iran and its country from 1980 to 1988. Even 2012 human rights groups and US government research documents denounce MEK for its current abuse of its headquarters in Albania and showing cult-like behavior.
The actions MEK has vehemently denied and its senior leader said USA Today emanates from a vicious “disinformation campaign” by Iranian administrative rulers, range from torture and forced singles to embrace members against their will.
MEK is the main force behind Iran’s so-called National Council for Resistance, and has developed close ties with several Western politicians and operators, including Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York and lawyer for Donald Trump. Many have reportedly been paid a large sum of money to give speeches at MEK events.
Giuliani appeared at one of the MEK rallys held in Poland in 2019. At the Paris Forum on June 20th, Council leader Mariam Rajabi repeated his opposition to the return of the monarchy, saying, “There are no Shah or Mullah.”
Within Iran, opposition groups are also fragmented and coalesced on specific issues. Iranian protesters in 2009 were flooded the streets with what they saw as a stolen presidential election. In 2017, the Running Street protest focused on the collapse of living standards. In 2022, trigger was women’s rights.
Iran’s predominantly Sunni Muslim Kurds and Baluch minorities are also opposed to rule from Tehran’s Persian-speaking Shiite government. These groups regularly organize protests in western Iran, where they form a majority.
Since Israel’s air force war with Iran began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used a series of media appearances to support the notion of Iran’s change of government. Trump is also speculating about the idea.
“It is not politically correct to use the term “change of government,” but why is there no change of government if the current Iranian regime cannot make Iran great again? ” Trump said in a social media post on June 23.
Still, some Iranian activists involved in previous protests within Iran say they don’t want to help unlock massive unrest, even against systems they hate, or against those attacked by the US and Israel.
One of them revealed her feelings from an Iranian prison.
“Don’t destroy my city,” Narju Mohammadi, Iran’s most well-known rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a social media post on June 17 that Israel had called on Tehran residents to evacuate parts of Iran’s capital.
“We’ll end this war.”
Contributors: Bad Janssen, Reuters
