The role of the Shah and the mullahs in Iran

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In an orchestrated effort, these scenes are videoed and widely distributed inside and outside Iran in order to pretend that the Iranian people want the return of the deposed Shah and his family! Writes Saeed Abed

To every observer’s eyes, the ever-increasing and continuous uprisings and social unrests in Iran are the unwavering quest and desire of the people of Iran for a regime change.

From 2017 onwards, the MEK’s resistance units have propagated and spread across Iran and have played a crucial role in organizing the uprisings, a reality that brought alarming sounds for the regime. We have witnessed the primary slogans at these demonstrations include “Death to Khamenei, death to Raisi.” However, it is evident that on occasions, agents of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) joined the demonstrators and began chanting slogans in favour of Iran’s previous dictatorship (Shah’s regime) to downgrade the main demand of the protests. In many instances, videos broadcasted in cyberspace reveal that voices supporting the Shah’s regime were superimposed on the images.

From years ago, the Iranian regime had realized that its deception tactic that there were “reformists’ within the regime no longer worked. With the ever-increasing presence of the resistance units across Iran and its lessening grasp on power, the regime had to think of other ways to deviate from the demand of the people for its overthrow.

To counter this unpleasant reality, Khamenei opted to appoint Ebrahim Raisi, who was engaged in the mass murder of 30,000 political prisoners, more than 90% affiliated with MEK (PMOI/ Mujahedeen) in 1988, as president to suppress the uprisings and delay its fall.

The regime’s chosen strategy dictated that the only way out of this situation was to eliminate its real alternative, the MEK and the NCRI.

In an unprecedented move, Khamenei and members of Iran’s National Security Office assigned an official diplomat affiliated with MOIS to execute a bomb plot at the annual gathering of the Iranian resistance movement in Paris in 2018. The goal of the bomb plot was against Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the head of the Iranian resistance movement and thus destroy the political alternative.

At the same time, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence launched a new campaign to create a false alternative, the alleged return of the family of the former Shah, with the aim of diverting the course of the uprisings and discrediting the real alternative. In this regard, agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and its mercenaries are sent to the scenes of the uprisings and protests to chant slogans in support of the Shah’s regime.

In an orchestrated effort, these scenes are videoed and widely distributed inside and outside Iran in order to pretend that the Iranian people want the return of the deposed Shah and his family!

This is an attempt to extricate the Iranian regime from the predicament of its viable and organized alternative. There are many facts behind the slogans supporting the Shah’s regime and the presence of the Ministry of Intelligence behind these slogans, including the following:

Jomhuri Islami, a state newspaper – In revelations stated by the regime’s different factions, on July 26, 2016, an article titled “Behind the scenes of the slogan” Reza Shah…)” was printed stating: “Yesterday’s incident in front of Parliament accomplishes the circle of opposition policies to topple the government. It is a programmed plan… These people have become so reckless that they have sent some people to Parliament with unprecedented slogans such as “Reza Shah…”, and they maneuver freely with no interference by the police. “This group is exactly the same group that is present in the Friday prayers in Tehran and in the rallies…”

The Ministry of Intelligence also issued an eight-point instruction for “trained and influential forces in recent rallies” to chant slogans supporting the late Shah. Muhammad Mahdavi Far, one of the wounded Basij members in the Iran-Iraq war and one of the signatories to the statement against Khamenei with 13 other political figures, published on his Telegram account that in a statement from the Ministry of Intelligence on May 18, the following:

1) Have some medium-sized stones with you.
2) Getting around the crowd naturally and identifying leaders.
3) If the slogans against the regime, the leadership, and the Iranian

Revolutionary Guard became sharp and widespread, they are obliged to repeat the slogans against the high prices and the slogan of Reza Shah… and some other protest slogans that were at their disposal before that, and to encourage people to “repeat these slogans…”.

In a May 17, 2022, detailed letter regarding the massacre of political prisoners, Mr. Hashem Khostar, head of the Iranian Teachers Syndicate, who is currently detained in Vakilabad Prison in Mashhad, wrote: “In the contemporary history of Iran, the Shah and the Mullah have always worked together, in cooperation with each other and the forefront, against the interests of the Iranian nation. This historical complicity can be seen so far in every uprising that intensifies, and people rise.”

When the protests and uprisings of the Iranian people become widespread and reach their climax, they either suppress them or try to divert them from their course. In every uprising, we have witnessed and still do that, the Shah and the Mullahs, with the arrangement of the Ministry of Intelligence, introduced the misguiding slogan “Reza Shah…” This issue is implemented by the Ministry of Intelligence’s agents and members of the Basij in demonstrations to replace the fundamental and just slogans pertinent to demonstrator desire, thus trying to divert the course of the uprising:

“With this ploy, the ruling mullahs want to postpone the fall of their regime. For example, when Khatami became president, close to two decades ago, the idea of “reformist” was manufactured by the regime and resulted in prolonging the existence of the regime’s barbaric rule. However, once this idea lost its momentum and the idea was overused and revealed its true intentions, a new strategy was imposed.

Ebrahim Raisi, the killer of 30000 political prisoners, became the president to terrorize protesters, and at the same time, with the slogan “Reza Shah…” was used to undermine the real alternative and to substitute to NCRI alternative by MOIS and IRGC.”

On July 20, 2017, a so-called opposition to the regime, Telegram account revealed the Ministry of Intelligence’s project to spread slogans in support of the Shah’s son against the MEK and the resistance units.

“In May 1997, when intelligence agents came to my garden, they asked me why don’t you cooperate with Prince Reza Pahlavi? And added, “Do you want to get the prince’s phone number now to talk to him?” They threw 80% insults at the regime, as well as 20% insults at the Mojahedin-e-Khalq.”!

During a large demonstration held in Isfahan on December 26, 2021, participants in the scene had taken photos and videos regarding the presence of Basij militiamen chanting in favour of Reza Shah. The witnesses added: “Basij and mercenary elements infiltrated the ranks of the people. They took off their keffiyeh and chanted the slogan of Reza Shah.” These are not demonstrators “.

In his many interviews, Reza Pahlavi stated that he wants to work with the IRGC and Basij. Therefore, his only benefit to the Khamenei regime is to undermine the firm will of the Iranian people and their resistance movement to overthrow the regime of oppression and crime, which is why the regime wants to present him as the favourite alternative. Considering the volatile state of Iran’s society, the spread of the resistance and the will of the people of Iran for a free secular future, the return of the Shah’s dictatorship is just a mirage.

Saeed Abed is a member of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, human rights activist, expert on Iran, and the Middle East.

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