Three-minute read
In authoritarian regimes, fear often reveals itself in strange alliances. A case in point: Iranian Diplomacy, a state-affiliated platform overseen by former regime ambassador Sadegh Kharrazi, recently published a startling exposé. But its target wasn’t Western sanctions, dissident journalists, or even exiled royals—it was the Iranian Resistance, led by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its umbrella coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
The April 18 article, titled “A Hidden Threat in the Heart of American Politics”, makes a dramatic assertion: that the MEK, through undisclosed financial means, has managed to win the support of U.S. political figures such as Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo. The piece laments that these figures “have been lured to their conferences,” and warns that the MEK’s visibility in Washington represents a national security risk—not to Iran, but to the United States.
This is more than deflection. It’s a confession.
What the article exposes, albeit inadvertently, is that among all factions opposing the clerical dictatorship, only the NCRI evokes genuine fear in Tehran’s halls of power. And yet, in its desperation to discredit this opposition, Iranian Diplomacy borrows from an unlikely source: a monarchist contributor to the Jerusalem Post, a man named Aidin Panahi, who authored the very op-ed upon which much of the Iranian article is based.
That alignment is no accident.
#Iran News: State-Run Newspaper Says Reza Pahlavi and Monarchists Have Served Clerical Regimehttps://t.co/iey2VpMKXU
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 8, 2025
Monarchist Echo Chambers and the Regime’s Script
By amplifying a monarchist’s Western op-ed as gospel, the Iranian regime’s mouthpieces signal not just fear, but strategy. Monarchists, despite their loud media footprint, have no grassroots presence in Iran. They offer no viable roadmap, and they pose no real threat. And yet, their narratives—particularly those undermining the MEK—are curiously aligned with the regime’s disinformation campaigns.
That’s no coincidence. The clerical regime has long mastered the art of elevating “safe” opposition figures—those who pose no threat to its survival. A revealing example comes from Mehdi Nasiri, a former editor-in-chief of Kayhan and now a regime-permitted political commentator. In his now-notorious framing, “From Prince to Tajzadeh,” Nasiri laid bare how the system curiously accommodates both Reza Pahlavi, the monarchist heir operating freely in exile, and Mostafa Tajzadeh, a so-called reformist insider. Despite criticizing aspects of the regime, both enjoy platforms, access, and degrees of immunity that are systematically denied to genuine revolutionaries, who face prison, torture, or death for far less.
Why the Clerical Regime in #Iran Needs A Fake Oppositionhttps://t.co/7SyYEs8WET pic.twitter.com/nyZ5ujs6wG
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 11, 2025
The Washington Rally: An Anti-Resistance Roadshow
The regime’s reliance on hollow proxies was on full display at the April 13 monarchist rally in Washington, D.C. Touted as a historic turning point, the rally drew fewer than 500 attendees—despite months of promotion, offers of paid travel, and extensive satellite coverage.
But the low turnout wasn’t the main scandal. What shocked observers was the event’s focus: not the atrocities of the ruling regime, not the repression in Zahedan or Evin, but a coordinated attack on the MEK. Speakers called for the organization to be banned, dismissed its decades of resistance, and echoed the very accusations long used by Tehran to delegitimize its most formidable opponents.
Even prominent diaspora Iranians reacted with disbelief. “You were handed a stage in the capital of democracy,” one activist wrote on X, “and you used it to recite the regime’s talking points.”
— Farideh Karimi (@KarimiFarideh) April 7, 2025
A Manufactured Mirage
This convergence—the regime promoting a monarchist voice, the monarchists parroting the regime’s enemies list—isn’t happenstance. It’s tactical. Unable to reform, unable to repress indefinitely, the regime turns to distraction. It elevates figureheads like Reza Pahlavi through cyber campaigns, media networks, and groups like NUFDI, which lobby Congress while working behind the scenes to undermine the NCRI.
As political prisoner Golrokh Iraee wrote in a powerful open letter from inside Evin Prison: “Reformists and monarchists have united—not to overthrow tyranny, but to preserve it. They exist to make sure the people never believe another future is possible.”
Her words are more than critique. They’re diagnosis.
Indeed, the clerical dictatorship, having lost the illusion of “moderates vs. hardliners,” now pushes artificial alternatives. It promotes a “transition strategy” through cooperation with the IRGC and MOIS—Reza Pahlavi’s publicly stated line—because it knows that real revolution is not in his lexicon. It’s in the streets, the prisons, and the organized networks that have withstood the test of time.
"Down with the Oppressor, Be it the SHAH or The SUPREME LEADER": A popular slogan chanted by protesters in universities across Iran. WATCH 👇 #IranProtests#مهسا_امینی #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/bETfywFMB2
— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) November 27, 2022
The Real Threat—And Why They Fear It
The PMOI/NCRI has something no other group does: an underground network inside Iran, a democratic program, a structured coalition of ethnic and political representation, and decades of resilience.
That’s why Tehran’s proxies, whether in black turbans or golden crowns, reserve their sharpest attacks not for each other, but for the MEK.
The Iranian people know better. Their chant—“Death to the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader”—says everything about who they trust, and more importantly, who they don’t.