NCRI CONFERENCE – AUVERS SUR OISE, PARIS

Saturday 31 May 2025

Having seen the collapse of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the decapitation of Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel, and the pummelling of the Houthis in Yemen by the US and the UK, the Iranian mullahs are now at their weakest point since they seized power in the 1979 revolution. The chickens are coming home to roost.

With their economy in a state of collapse after decades of sanctions, mismanagement and corruption, the Iranian people are restless and ready to explode. Predictably, the mullahs’ response has been to ramp up arrests and executions in an attempt to terrify the population into submission. The mullahs know that there has been an exponential rise across the country in resistance units of the main democratic opposition movement – the PMOI/MEK. Under the inspirational leadership of Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the PMOI/MEK has garnered a massive international following of Western politicians, diplomats, academics and decision-makers. They are recognised as a government-in-waiting, ready to step in when the theocratic regime is overthrown.

But let me add a cautionary tale. Since the Shah fled the country during the 1979 revolution that overthrew his tyrannical rule, Reza Pahlavi, his 64-year-old son, has lived in luxury in America. Each time the ruling autocracy of the mullahs appears to be under threat, he breaks surface to trumpet his claim to the Peacock Throne. With echoes of the classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, Reza Pahlavi strides around the world’s capitals like a naked emperor, desperate to reclaim his father’s throne.

Pahlavi has enjoyed a life of privileged affluence with properties and possessions amassed on the back of the billions of dollars stolen from the Iranian people by his father. He is a phony. He has never built a credible movement and has no standing at home or abroad. Indeed, he has even boasted of retaining links with the terrorist IRGC – the regime’s Gestapo. His courting of attention by Western media is playing into the hands of the mullahs who warn that their overthrow could lead to the return of the monarchy and the brutal repression of the hated Shah.

The PMOI/MEK reject the mullahs’ religious dictatorship and seek to replace it with a democratic and independent republic based on the separation of Church and State. President Trump and Western leaders should now move with speed to consult with Mrs Rajavi and the PMOI/MEK to achieve regime change and relieve 95 million Iranians from their oppression and suffering.