On January 1st, an interesting op-ed appeared in the Jerusalem Post, penned by Aidin Panahi, an Iranian-American research professor. Titled “How will opposition groups shape post-Islamic regime Iran?” the piece systematically criticized the principal democratic opposition group striving to dismantle Iran’s oppressive theocracy and restore democracy to its 91 million citizens. Panahi’s arguments echoed the long-standing propaganda propagated by the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS) while promoting Reza Pahlavi, the self-proclaimed Crown Prince of Iran. As the author of a contemporary history of Iran, I find myself puzzled and astonished by Panahi’s absurd comments.

Despite playing no role in opposition to the mullahs, Pahlavi clearly has visions of returning to the peacock throne. His attempts to resuscitate the Iranian monarchy have been depressingly predictable. Having fled into exile when his father was deposed in 1979, Pahlavi has lived a life of great wealth ever since, although he has never been entirely transparent on the source of his vast fortune. In exile, Pahlavi has failed to assemble supporters and form a cohesive group or organization, underlining the fact that the monarchy is a spent force that belongs to the past and has nothing to offer for the future of Iran.

In her op-ed, Panahi claims that Reza Pahlavi has a plan to restore a secular democracy in Iran. But the self-proclaimed ‘King’ has inflamed hostility in Iran by stating his would-be support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the theocratic regime’s reviled equivalent of the Gestapo. During an interview in 2018, he said: “I am in bilateral contacts with the (regime’s) military, the IRGC and the Basij. We are communicating. They are signaling their readiness and expressing willingness to align with the people.”

It is the IRGC and their paramilitary Basij who have shot, arrested, tortured, raped, and brutalized opponents of the regime at home and abroad for four decades. They are blacklisted as a foreign terrorist organization in America and Canada. For Reza Pahlavi to suggest a role for the IRGC is an outrageous indication of the total illegitimacy of the monarchy. Unsurprisingly, during nationwide protests, demonstrators chanted: “Down with the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader (Khamenei)” and “No to the Shah! No to the mullahs.”

Panahi repeats almost verbatim the slanders and smears that the MOIS has churned out for decades. Having failed to annihilate the main constituent part of the opposition during the horrific massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, the mullahs launched a campaign of demonization and terror against them. Focusing their attention on elements of the Western media, manipulating key journalists to embrace a smear campaign against the leading democratic opposition group while trotting out the Iranian regime’s greatest hits like calling them an ‘Islamic-Marxist cult’ and claiming that they are a terrorist organization. The fact that the main democratic opposition group now boasts a huge entourage of prominent international political supporters from left to right of the political spectrum gives the lie to all these ludicrous assertions and weary propaganda fed into the system by the MOIS and willing ciphers like Panahi.

Readers of the Jerusalem Post may like to know that 137 former world leaders signed a joint statement of solidarity with the people of Iran, showing their support for the leading democratic opposition group. Signatories to the letter included former Vice President Mike Pence and 50 former presidents, 47 former prime ministers, one former chancellor, and nine other former Heads of State from across the world. Two former presidents of the European Commission and three Nobel Peace Prize laureates were also among the signatories. It is this sort of international support that terrifies the mullahs, who see the main democratic opposition group as the greatest threat to the continuation of their venally corrupt and vicious regime, with good reason.

For the past 46 years, the principal democratic opposition group has stood as the sole, serious force advocating for the complete overthrow of the theocratic regime, championing regime change led by the Iranian people themselves. This group is well-organized, internationally recognized, and operates a nationwide network of Resistance Units whose members risk their lives daily to challenge the mullahs’ tyranny. The opposition unequivocally rejects all forms of dictatorship, whether under theocratic rule or the Shah’s monarchy, and aspires to establish a secular, democratic republic. Their vision is one where freedom and justice are restored, torture and executions abolished, the nuclear threat eliminated, and state-sponsored terrorism eradicated.

In 1979, the Iranian people escaped the Shah’s frying pan only to fall into the fire of the mullahs’ rule. They must not be allowed to return to the oppressive cycle of monarchy. After enduring more than 120 years of tyranny and repression, the Iranian people now yearn for lasting peace, freedom, justice, and democracy.