{"id":330817,"date":"2025-04-24T07:34:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T06:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=330817"},"modified":"2026-02-24T12:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:49:10","slug":"crown-and-turban-tehrans-strategy-to-erase-irans-true-democratic-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/fake-opposition\/crown-and-turban-tehrans-strategy-to-erase-irans-true-democratic-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Crown and Turban: Tehran\u2019s Strategy to Erase Iran\u2019s True Democratic Alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thousands
Thousands of NCRI supporters rallied in Paris on Feb. 8, 2025, marking Iran\u2019s 1979 revolution and vowing to overthrow the clerical regime.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In authoritarian regimes, fear often reveals itself in strange alliances. A case in point: Iranian Diplomacy<\/em>, a state-affiliated platform overseen by former regime ambassador Sadegh Kharrazi, recently published a startling expos\u00e9. But its target wasn\u2019t Western sanctions, dissident journalists, or even exiled royals\u2014it was the Iranian Resistance, led by the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK) and its umbrella coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).<\/p>\n

The April 18 article<\/a>, titled \u201cA Hidden Threat in the Heart of American Politics\u201d<\/em>, 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 \u201chave been lured to their conferences,\u201d and warns that the MEK\u2019s visibility in Washington represents a national security risk\u2014not to Iran, but to the United States.<\/p>\n

This is more than deflection. It\u2019s a confession.<\/p>\n

What the article exposes, albeit inadvertently, is that among all factions opposing the clerical dictatorship, only the NCRI evokes genuine fear in Tehran\u2019s halls of power. And yet, in its desperation to discredit this opposition, Iranian Diplomacy<\/em> borrows from an unlikely source: a monarchist contributor to the Jerusalem Post<\/em>, a man named Aidin Panahi, who authored the very op-ed upon which much of the Iranian article is based.<\/p>\n

That alignment is no accident.<\/p>\n

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#Iran<\/a> News: State-Run Newspaper Says Reza Pahlavi and Monarchists Have Served Clerical Regimehttps:\/\/t.co\/iey2VpMKXU<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n