A Jan. 2 Newsmax article by Sam Barron gave a platform to an “opposition leader” in Iran:”
Reza Pahlavi, the leader of Iran’s opposition, thanked President Donald Trump after he vowed to protect Iranian protesters.
“President Trump, thank you for your strong leadership and support of my compatriots,” Pahlavi, who lives in exile, posted on X.
“This warning you have issued to the criminal leaders of the Islamic Republic gives my people greater strength and hope — hope that, at last, a President of the United States is standing firmly by their side,” added Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah.
“As they risk their lives to end this regime’s 46-year reign of chaos and terror, they send me with a responsibility and a message: to seek the relationship Iran once had with America that brought peace and prosperity to the Middle East,” he continued.
Giving Pahlavi an uncritical platform is something Newsmax has been doing over the past few months:
- Iranian Opposition Leader Pahlavi Urges ‘End of Regime’
- Exiled Iranian Leader Pahlavi Praises Maduro Capture
- X Replaces Iran Flag Emoji With Shah-Era Lion and Sun
- Reza Pahlavi: ‘We Need to Cut the Snake’s Head Off’ in Iran
- Son of Iran’s Last Shah Urges More Pressure to Help Protesters
- Iran’s Exiled Prince Urges Trump to Strike Regime
- Hackers Target Iran State TV’s Satellite Transmission to Broadcast Exiled Crown Prince
- Iranian Crown Prince to Newsmax: Trump Must Show He’s ‘a Man of His Words’
- 200,000 Rally in Germany Against Iran Following Pahlavi’s Call
The issue here is that nobody seems to know who Pahlavi’s constituency is. As a wire article published by Newsmax details:
He has been in exile for nearly 50 years. His father — Iran’s shah — was so widely hated that millions took the streets against him in 1979, forcing him from power. Nevertheless, Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is trying to position himself as a player in his country’s future.
Pahlavi successfully spurred protesters onto the streets Thursday night in a massive escalation of the protests sweeping Iran. Initially sparked by the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy, the demonstrations have become a serious challenge to its theocracy, battered by years of nationwide protests and a 12-day war in June launched by Israel that saw the U.S. bomb nuclear enrichment sites.
What is unknown is how much real support the 65-year-old Pahlavi, who is in exile in the U.S., has in his homeland. Do protesters want a return of the Peacock Throne, as his father’s reign was known? Or are the protesters just looking for anything that is not Iran’s Shiite theocracy?
Indeed, a Jan. 15 wire article published by Newsmax adds:
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi laid out his aspirations Thursday for Iran if its theocracy is toppled — and experts say they sound exactly like what U.S. President Donald Trump wants to hear.
[…]“He’s trying to tick the boxes of everything that can correlate with Trump,” said Danny Citrinowicz, who once headed research on Iran in one of the Israeli military’s intelligence branches and is now a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli defense think tank.
Around the world, many protesters held up his photo. But how much support Pahlavi has among the public inside Iran is unclear, although he does seem to have a “small modicum,” Parsi said.
People are yelling “Pahlavi” in the streets of Iran, not because they actually want him, but because there’s no other name to yell, Citrinowicz said.
So, linking himself to Trump seems like the main thing Pahlavi has going for him — and Newsmax seems to know it.