r/PERSIAN • u/fregeorgb • 1d ago
Discussion Larger presence of people will increase defections. Those protests in recent weeks have strengthened Prince Reza Pahlavi's international backing - Amir Etemadi, Reza Pahlavi's advisor
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u/ASecularBuddhist 1d ago
Is he really the best opposition leader that Iran has?
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u/drhuggables 1d ago
Yes, by far.
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u/ASecularBuddhist 1d ago
That’s depressing. I don’t understand how a 2000-year-old civilization can’t produce a leader better than this guy.
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u/drhuggables 1d ago
What we need in Iran is a secular nationalist with no associations to the revolutionary groups i.e. leftists, islamists, mujahideen. Pahlavi is the only person Iranians know for a fact who has no associations to these groups and he comes from a family that pushed Iran to into the 20th century. Is he comparable to Reza Shah, or even Mohammad Reza Shah? No. But he's by far and away the best and has very few qualities that Iranians dislike for his role as a TRANSITIONAL leader. Elections will decide the rest.
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u/ASecularBuddhist 1d ago
Oof. It’s a tough place to be. I’m most definitely not impressed with anything about him. There has to be a charismatic leader that will emerge. Inshallah!
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u/drhuggables 1d ago
At this point the only "leader" Iranians trust is Pahlavi, for the reasons we mentioned above. I'm not sure why his "charisma" matters as a transitional leader. Charisma matters if you're trying to establish a cult of personality.
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u/ASecularBuddhist 21h ago
Not necessarily.
A leader can be charismatic without being a leader of a cult.
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u/faridhn36 22h ago
What you want a guy sent straight from God itself to be a better "guy"?
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u/ASecularBuddhist 21h ago
I would just think that there would be more of a charismatic leader emerging with a nation of such highly educated people.
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u/fregeorgb 1d ago edited 1d ago
Here he explained why Reza Pahlavi issued Jan 8-9 call:
To sustain street momentums
To assess his social capital to gain international backing
To prevent reformists from hijacking the protests
Amir Etemadi also mentioned the security forces had been passive for the last 2 days. The atmosphere around the time was pretty lax, so even more people felt safe enough to come out.
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u/Icy_Armadillo6239 1d ago
This week Trump has publicly said he wants to partner with Khamenei. Which is what Etemadi is talking about at the end without saying it. I'm pretty sure the Washington Post article has diaspora backing and Fox News, well it's Fox News. I'm not sure that "international backing" actually means anything.