Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 17.01.2026
Western imperialism including Israel are placing their hopes largely in Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah. He has announced that he is establishing a secure platform where thousands of Iranian government officials, including military officers, who are willing to take action against the regime will register. In an interview with Politico, he said that “there are already tens of thousands and every week thousands more join.” He then reported that he intends to establish another platform, where ordinary citizens who want to participate in the counter-revolution he is planning will register.
Pahlavi – who until recently was unable to secure a meeting with senior White House officials – is considered, at least in his own eyes, to be someone who can and should lead Iran after the current regime falls. This week, according to a report by Barak Ravid in Axios, he has already met with Steve Witkoff.
The White House is cautious, as the United States remembered Chalabi, who promised that he could head a pro-American regime in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and turned out to be a fraud. In the elections held in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, he failed to get more than a few thousand votes and did not enter parliament.
The problem is that when Trump calls on protesters in Iran to take over state institutions, and when a military attack on Iran has become from the warning and threat to the matter of “When” in the absence of any other prominent opposition figure or organization, the impression is created that he is the man on whom the Trump’s administration may place its trust, thus making him the “American leader” of Iran.
But the opposition is very divided. During the great protest in 2022 after the murder of Mehsana Amini by the “morality police”, the exiled opposition was also unable to unite its ranks and establish a representative body that could unite the protest movements around it. A conference organized by activists and representatives of opposition organizations in Washington in February 2023 succeeded in creating a coalition of opposing extremes, but only for a moment. This conference was attended, along with Pahlavi, by human rights activist Masia Alinejad; Hamed Amsailian, representative of the families of the victims of the Ukrainian airliner that was shot down in 2020 by the Revolutionary Guards; Abdullah Mohtadi, leader of the Kurdish “Kumala” party; Nobel laureate Shirin Abadi; and actress Golshifteh Farhani. The conference laid the foundation for a strategic action plan for the opposition, but two months later Pahlavi withdrew from it, thus breaking up the coalition. According to Alireza Nader, who was his partner in the process and decided to withdraw from his organization, the reason was the bad influence of Pahlavi’s aides, who demanded that the partners adopt the idea of the return of the monarchy as the only alternative to the current regime.
The Iranian masses have experienced the game of chess with an American puppet whose rule was brutal and whose main concern was to get rich.
In a February 2023 article, Professor Atta Khodashtian, a board member of the organization “Canadians for Democracy in Iran,” divides the opposition organizations in Iran into six main groups: those based on ethnicity, including the Kurds, Baloch, Azeri Arabs, and others; nationalist organizations; supporters of the monarchy; leftist organizations; progressive Muslims, and the leftist militant organization Mujahedin Khalq. However, according to him, even such a division does not reflect the entirety of the opposition currents. In each of these categories, rival organizations operate that have so far failed to build a common denominator among them, let alone create consensus on a national basis. [I]
For example, among the leftist organizations, one can find the Fedayeen Organization of the Iranian People; The leftist party of Iran, the Toda Party; and the United Republicans of Iran. There is also division among the Kurds and Baluchis and among those who define themselves as nationalists or monarchists. The Mujahedin Khalq organization is not forgotten for its support for Iraq in its war with Iran.
It is very difficult to believe that a protest movement without a leader would even agree to accept the leadership of the heads of the exiled opposition organizations who have been living for decades in London, New York and Los Angeles. In addition the military organizations and the revolutionary Guard have remained loyal to the regime.
The United States can bomb targets, but the American people remember what happened to the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan and are unlikely to support a major war against the regime in Iran. After attacking Iran, Trump will be convinced that the Iranian people are closing ranks behind the existing regime.
If the United States starts a war, the interest of the world working class is in a revolutionary defeat for the United States and a revolutionary defense of Iran. This will be the time to demand the arming of the working class under a democratically elected leadership that, after the defeat of the offensive, will turn its weapons against the regime for a democratic revolution that will not stop until there is a workers’ revolution supported by the poor peasants.
Down with the American imperialism and the monarchists!
For a revolutionary constituted Assembly!
For a workers supported by the poor peasant’s government
Endnotes:
[i] CDI Ata Hoodashtian:The Fractured Opposition to the Islamic Regime