Author
Excerpt
This moment is rare. I am not Reza Pahlavi fanboy – my interest is exclusively with the liberty of the people of Iran. The worry is that those with the power to effect change are selling out this prospect of freedom by gaslighting the world about how popular politics works. The people of Iran should not be betrayed because Pahlavi is not “popular enough” yet – he is plenty popular for the purposes of this endeavour.
The Islamic Republic’s fractures, exposed further by the 2025-2026 strikes, leadership losses, and ongoing protests, have created a once-in-a-generation strategic opening. A free, secular Iran would be a moral triumph: the right of a people to self-determination without the boot of ideology on their necks.
It would also deliver immense strategic gains for the West, by ending the constant, implicit nuclear threat, religiously motivated proxy terrorism, Tehran’s “economic veto” over the Strait of Hormuz; and replacing “Death to America” with a potential ally in a fraught region of the world. If the regime is not brought down, America and Israel would have an even tougher time in the future mustering sympathy for the perfectly foreseeable and inevitable civilian-targeted terror attacks like 7 October 2023 that are sure to follow.