Reza Pahlavi's Movement Is Dangerous. I've Seen It Up Close
Pahlavi attempts to portray himself as a democrat who could be a 'transitional' leader in a post-regime Iran, but the movement he 'leads' has exhibited alarming behavior, writes ex-ally Alireza Nader.
A note from our Editor-in-Chief:
This isn’t a voice you normally see on Zeteo. Alireza Nader is a former fellow at the neoconservative, hawkishly pro-Israel Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and an Iranian who supports regime change in Iran. He was also once friendly with Reza Pahlavi, but he now believes the son of the last shah of Iran is fronting a dangerous, anti-democratic movement. While Zeteo does not share all of the views expressed in this article, we believe this is a rarely-reported perspective on Pahlavi and his supporters and, therefore, this is an important piece.
-Mehdi
It was in 2017 that I first met Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, at an Italian restaurant in Potomac, Maryland, near where he lived. Our meeting took place right after the mass protests that year began in Iran and after I had left my job at the RAND Corporation, freeing me to advocate for democracy in Iran. I had been particularly impressed with Pahlavi’s passionate defense of the protesters during an interview on Al Jazeera. I had never been a fan of the monarchy in Iran, but I wanted to meet him.
He was an affable and down-to-earth man who genuinely seemed to care about Iran. We spoke at length about democracy and freedom for all Iranians. I believed in Pahlavi’s talk of democracy because it was backed by action at the time. A broad coalition of liberal democrats and even progressives had gathered around him, in addition to the usual constitutional monarchists who had always been the core of his support base.
But Pahlavi’s movement morphed into something much darker and more dangerous over the years, especially after he effectively dropped out of a coalition formed by eight prominent Iranian opposition members at Georgetown University in 2023 and declared himself the sole leader of the Iranian opposition. A few months later, I had lost all faith in the former crown prince and his movement, especially after I observed his staffers plot against other opponents of the regime and treat even their allies with contempt and derision.
To understand how extremist and increasingly violent the Pahlavist movement has become, look no further than the recent murder of Canadian-Iranian democracy activist Masood Masjoody in British Columbia.