LONDON — At least 50,000 officials from inside Iran’s ruling government and military have registered with a secure platform set up to coordinate the ousting of the dictatorship in Tehran, according to a prominent opponent of the regime.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah of Iran, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, announced a month ago that he was creating the channel for regime defectors to register and receive information on campaign tactics from his opposition movement.
Speaking to POLITICO, he said the numbers still needed to be fully verified but his team were working to establish links with key elements in Iran’s military, paramilitary and security forces, who would play a potential role toppling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and working to establish a new secular state.
“There’s tens of thousands — the last estimate is over 50,000 at least, maybe more,” Pahlavi, whose supporters refer to him as Iran’s “crown prince,” said in a telephone interview. “Every week we have additional numbers coming. Clearly we have to analyze the data, it’s an arduous process — it will take some time — but the signals are quite strong. We have received [a] tremendous […] response, and of course we are giving top priority to key elements within those designated segments that I mentioned.”
He said a separate website will be launched for ordinary Iranian citizens to register their interest in joining the national campaign against the regime.
Pahlavi was speaking to POLITICO as he prepared to convene a conference of at least 500 opposition supporters, including activists, artists and athletes, in Munich on Saturday. He says the conference will be one of the most diverse gatherings of anti-regime movements ever held outside the country since the revolution.
Pahlavi has put himself forward to lead Iran’s transition to democracy if the Islamic Republic regime collapses. His critics say he has not tried hard enough to unify groups within the Iranian opposition during his 46 years outside the country. Some say as an exiled member of Iran’s last royal family he would be the wrong person to take over again.
Saturday’s conference is intended to address some of those concerns and to strengthen the resolve of the regime’s opponents inside Iran, who will be able to follow speeches online via illicit internet services such as Starlink which have been smuggled into the country.
“The goal is to demonstrate that more than ever we have a growing coalition of like-minded people who want to work together — quite diverse, perhaps the largest gathering ever … representing all factions within the Iranian political sphere,” he said.
All participants in Saturday’s Convention of National Cooperation conference support three key principles: preserving Iran’s territorial integrity; the protection of individual liberties and the equality of all citizens; and the separation of religion and state.
Iran resumed nuclear talks with European powers in Turkey on Thursday, after the United States and Israel bombed the country’s key military and nuclear sites in June. Pahlavi said Iran should not be trusted and warned that negotiations would just allow Tehran to play for time.
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