{"id":345081,"date":"2026-05-15T18:06:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=345081"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:16:32","slug":"le-nouvel-obs-investigation-portrays-reza-pahlavis-rise-as-media-driven-foreign-backed-and-increasingly-extremist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/fake-opposition\/le-nouvel-obs-investigation-portrays-reza-pahlavis-rise-as-media-driven-foreign-backed-and-increasingly-extremist\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Nouvel Obs: Investigation Portrays Reza Pahlavi\u2019s Rise as Media-Driven, Foreign-Backed, and Increasingly Extremist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The son of Iran’s ousted Shah, Reza Pahlavi speaking at an international press conference in Washington, D.C., January 16, 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a sharply critical investigation, the French magazine Le Nouvel Obs argues<\/a> that Reza Pahlavi\u2019s emergence as a face in the Iranian opposition was not an organic political phenomenon, but the product of coordinated media campaigns, lobbying networks, foreign influence operations, and increasingly radical monarchist activism.<\/p>\n

The article by journalist Marie Vaton traces how the exiled son of Iran\u2019s ousted shah transformed, within three years, from a marginal figure into a globally promoted individual after the 2022 protests and the January 2026 massacres in Iran. According to the report, this transformation was fueled by networks stretching across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

The investigation mentions how a Persian-language channel, accused by former staff members of systematically promoting a pro-intervention, pro-Pahlavi narrative while portraying foreign countries as a necessary ally against the regime in Iran. It also references allegations of Israeli-linked online influence<\/a> operations designed to artificially amplify monarchist support on social media.<\/p>\n

The article further describes a growing overlap between segments of the monarchist movement and far-right, ultranationalist, and openly supremacist rhetoric. Several dissidents interviewed accuse radical pro-Pahlavi activists of harassment, intimidation, blacklisting campaigns, and even threats against rival Iranian opposition voices. Former supporters warn that the movement around Pahlavi is increasingly taking on \u201cfascistic\u201d characteristics.<\/p>\n

A full translated version of the article follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Main edition<\/strong>
Le Nouvel Obs<\/em>
Pages 26\u201331
Thursday, May 14 to Thursday, May 21, 2026
3,216 words \u2013 12 min<\/p>\n

\n

REZA PAHLAVI: The Making of a King<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

How did the exiled son of the deposed Shah of Iran manage, in just three years, to establish himself as a symbol of the Iranian opposition? From Washington to the cobblestones of the Trocad\u00e9ro, the rise of this exiled heir is in fact the product of multifaceted and aggressive networks, sometimes close to certain far-right figures.<\/p>\n

The figure<\/span><\/h2>\n

Almost every Sunday, they gather at Place du Trocad\u00e9ro. It is there, in front of the Eiffel Tower, that the spectacle begins. Music first\u2014Persian, of course\u2014followed by a chant echoed by a few hundred demonstrators: \u201cJavid Shah\u201d (\u201cLong live the Shah\u201d), then \u201cMarg bar se M.\u201d (\u201cDeath to the three M.s: the mullahs, the leftists, and the People\u2019s Mojahedin\u201d). Their rallying cry.<\/p>\n

Seen from above, the square appears covered in red and green, the colors of the Iranian flag\u2014except that here they are adorned with a lion and sun, emblems of Iran before the 1979 revolution. The image is striking. The message is clear: down with Islamic darkness, bring back the light and progress of the Shah\u2019s golden age.<\/p>\n

How many are they, these exiled \u201cmonarchists\u201d dreaming of placing Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late king, on the throne? Since the massacres committed by the Iranian regime on January 8\u20139, 2026, hundreds have rallied\u2014from Brussels to Munich, via Paris, a city symbolic in many ways. It is here, in Passy cemetery, that Leila Pahlavi, one of the Shah\u2019s daughters, was buried after an overdose in 2001. It is also here that Farah Pahlavi, the widow of the deposed sovereign, lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you \u2018Bibi\u2019, thank you Trump\u201d<\/h2>\n

France, historically a land of refuge for Iranians exiled, wounded, and tortured by the Islamic Republic, has nonetheless ended up disappointing them. Among placards reading \u201cThank you \u2018Bibi\u2019, thank you Trump,\u201d a man in camouflage cuts through the crowd, draped in an Israeli flag.<\/p>\n

He is Samuel Davoud, vice-president of the association Homa, which officially works for the defense of women in Iran but in practice organizes mobilizations in favor of Reza Pahlavi. He appears on the podium holding up Le Point<\/em> magazine featuring the prince on its cover. Hand on heart, Davoud pays tribute to Israel, which he says is working to eradicate \u201cIslamic terrorism and all its proxies.\u201d Unlike \u201cMacron\u2019s France,\u201d which he accuses of failing to take a stance since the start of the American-Israeli strikes on February 28.<\/p>\n

Chief warrant officer Arnaud Frion, killed in an attack by a pro-Iranian militia in Iraqi Kurdistan in March, is honored with a minute of silence. Not so for the 175 schoolgirls who died that same month in the bombing of their school in Minab, Iran.<\/p>\n

Davoud repeats his pro-interventionist narrative in friendly media, such as the morning show of Fronti\u00e8res<\/em>, a far-right outlet, or on the Israeli channel i24News, which is pro-Netanyahu. On January 11, he brought three members of the far-right collective N\u00e9m\u00e9sis onto the stage, including Alice Cordier, who was applauded after holding up a sign reading \u201cF… Khamenei.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there is Mona Jafarian, the most visible Franco-Iranian monarchist. Three years ago, she was mainly active on Instagram, posting family photos and promoting honey creams or high heels. Since the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d movement in 2022, her profile has changed.<\/p>\n

Now she promotes Reza Pahlavi through her collective Femme Azadi<\/em>, with tireless activism: by day at the Trocad\u00e9ro or outside the Iranian embassy in Paris calling for its closure, and on TV channels such as LCI, France Info, RTL, and Europe 1, where she is presented alternately as a \u201cjournalist,\u201d an \u201cessayist,\u201d or the \u201cvoice of the people.\u201d By night, she attends dinners and gala events.<\/p>\n

Organizations such as the CRIF Friends group, Agir Ensemble (linked to the pro-Israel lobby Elnet), and the European Jewish Organization roll out the red carpet for her. She was even awarded the \u201cRighteous of October 7\u201d trophy at a pro-Israel evening organized by the Diaspora Defense Forces in May 2025.<\/p>\n

On social media, she relentlessly denounces the \u201cIranian far left,\u201d insulting them extensively. Among her targets: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned in Iran and recently hospitalized, whom she accuses of \u201cacting,\u201d Franco-Iranian researcher Kevan Gafa\u00efti, and journalists such as Quentin M\u00fcller, whom she calls a \u201clittle supremacist turd.\u201d All, in her view, are complicit with the Islamic regime.<\/p>\n

Her blacklist also includes La France Insoumise, \u201cfeminists,\u201d pro-Palestinians, the UN, UNICEF\u2026<\/p>\n

She describes herself as \u201cIslamophobic\u201d and claims a \u201cpre-Islamic Aryan identity.\u201d She has been under police protection for two years, claiming she has received death and rape threats, \u201coften from Lebanese Hezbollah supporters,\u201d she said on CNews.<\/p>\n

She represents the visible face of a broader, multifaceted, proselytizing, and aggressive network\u2014activists, lawyers, political and media figures\u2014operating with powerful influence groups from the corridors of the European Parliament to the streets of Paris, aiming to establish the Shah\u2019s heir as an unavoidable political figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake Iran Great Again\u201d<\/h2>\n

The story begins in February 2023 at Georgetown University in Washington, at the heart of American diplomatic networks where researchers, politicians, and diaspora figures intersect.<\/p>\n

A few months earlier, Mahsa Jina Amini had been arrested in Tehran for \u201cimproper dress\u201d and beaten to death in prison. The world was shaken by the fate of the 22-year-old Kurdish student and ignited by the \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d uprising.<\/p>\n

It is in this context that Reza Pahlavi re-emerges. Living in the United States since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew his father Mohammad Reza Shah, he attempts to gather a small group of figures: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, former footballer Ali Karimi, actress Golshifteh Farahani, and writer Hamed Esmaeilion, whose wife and daughter were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in January 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost no one knew him, neither in Iran nor on the international stage.\u201d \u2014 Azadeh Kian, sociologist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cGeorgetown committee\u201d is quickly dissolved. Reza Pahlavi wants unity\u2026 but only around himself. He was born a prince and intends to remain one. But at the time, his influence is minimal.<\/p>\n

Yet on February 14, 2026, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, he is cheered by 250,000 supporters after a speech urging Donald Trump to \u201ckeep his promises\u201d and \u201chelp\u201d the Iranian people following the \u201cbloodbath\u201d of January 8\u20139.<\/p>\n

Munich becomes a kind of coronation of a future king\u2026<\/p>\n

How can a once secondary symbolic figure\u2014advocating a secular Iran, a moderate constitutional monarchy, and admiring Martin Luther King Jr.\u2014become, in just three years, the natural leader of the Iranian opposition, greeted by crowds wearing \u201cMIGA\u201d caps (\u201cMake Iran Great Again\u201d) and chanting slogans such as \u201cOne homeland, one flag, one leader\u201d?<\/p>\n

\u201cReza Pahlavi is the making of a political phenomenon,\u201d says Azadeh Kian. At the center of this mechanism is Iran International, a Persian-language channel broadcast from London, which she compares to a kind of Iranian Fox News.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2017 with $250 million in Saudi funding, according to The Guardian<\/em>, it has long promoted a narrative of pre-1979 Iran as a lost paradise, modern and Westernized, where women walked in miniskirts.<\/p>\n

In 2023, in the wake of \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom,\u201d the channel hardened its line. \u201cEverything converged toward the same message,\u201d recalls Armin Khameh, a former editor who left in October 2025. \u201cThe Islamic Republic is absolute evil, Israel must help the Iranian people, and Pahlavi is the best candidate\u2014as if the channel were gradually preparing minds for military intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything converged toward the same message: the Islamic Republic is absolute evil, and Pahlavi is the best candidate.\u201d \u2014 Armin Khameh<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOpaque financing\u201d<\/h2>\n

At the height of the \u201ctwelve-day war\u201d in June 2025, and during the January protests, the channel continued broadcasting Reza Pahlavi\u2019s statements, including calls for people to take to the streets, claiming 70,000 soldiers and officials would defect.<\/p>\n

What followed is known: on January 8\u20139, regime militias opened fire with live ammunition, causing at least 7,600 identified deaths, according to Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is when Reza Pahlavi truly emerged on the international stage,\u201d says lawyer Ehsan Hosseinzadeh, a political refugee in France since 2019. He also notes a shift toward a more aggressive strategy against other Iranian opposition figures.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a quieter campaign unfolds behind the scenes, powered by algorithms. In autumn 2025, an investigation by Haaretz<\/em>, based on research by Citizen Lab (University of Toronto), revealed \u201cOperation Prisonbreak,\u201d allegedly led by elements of the Israeli state apparatus under Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel\u2014who had previously hosted Reza Pahlavi in Israel in April 2023.<\/p>\n

Its goal: to promote regime change in Iran by flooding social media with thousands of pro-monarchy bots, simulating broad popular support.<\/p>\n

Who pays for all this? \u201cNot the prince himself\u2014he doesn\u2019t have such resources,\u201d says his entourage, pointing to an \u201copaque ecosystem of funding involving lobbying and political networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

His advisor Saeed Ghasseminejad is a member of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US neoconservative think tank with a $13 million annual budget, partly funded by billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major Trump and Netanyahu supporter.<\/p>\n

In Brussels, a \u201cWoman, Life, Freedom\u201d figure says she was approached by a pro-Israel organization offering payment to mobilize for Reza Pahlavi\u2014an offer she refused.<\/p>\n

In Paris, lawyer Sahand Saber acknowledges helping to promote the prince in France. Another close associate, Alexandre Fatemi, recruited communications strategist Jean-Baptiste Doat, formerly in Bruno Retailleau\u2019s Interior Ministry team. The prince\u2019s interview on TF1\u2019s evening news in early February? He handled it. The Le Point<\/em> cover a week later? Also him. France Inter? That was rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cFASCIZING TURN\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Behind the scenes, some describe him as a \u201cscout\u201d recruiting charismatic figures for the future Shah\u2019s message: young, attractive women, preferably seen as victims of the regime.<\/p>\n

Journalist Nazila Maroufian, imprisoned after interviewing Mahsa Amini\u2019s father, says she was offered housing and publishing deals upon arriving in France in 2023, which she refused.<\/p>\n

Since then, model Negzzia has become one of the visible monarchist voices across major French media outlets.<\/p>\n

Sahand Saber insists everything is done out of \u201cpure humanism,\u201d while regretting the dominance of the \u201cIranian leftist opposition\u201d in French media.<\/p>\n

He also claims Reza Pahlavi seeks only democracy, like his \u201cnatural ally\u201d Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Yet over time, the initial soft power has faded. Mona Jafarian is now described by critics as a \u201charpy\u201d who intimidates opponents. A list of \u201cleftists to eliminate\u201d circulated online, including lawyers, researchers, and bookstores in Paris.<\/p>\n

In Canada, this climate has already turned deadly: Massoud Masjoody, a former professor and opponent of both the regime and monarchists, was killed by radical Iranians in March.<\/p>\n

Online, some extremists even call for the return of SAVAK, the Shah\u2019s feared secret police.<\/p>\n

Some early supporters have since distanced themselves, describing a \u201cfascistic turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, whose cause is Reza Pahlavi serving? What does he represent? asks journalist Kambiz Ghafouri, suggesting that this hard line may aim to weaken the opposition and keep Iran divided.<\/p>\n

In his view, external powers risk replicating the same authoritarian logic as the Islamic Republic: imposing a symbolic authority without real legitimacy.<\/p>\n

On April 27 in London, at a pro-Pahlavi rally, a group dressed in black staged a disturbing military-style performance honoring the ancient Persian \u201cImmortals\u201d\u2014a symbolic vision of replacing one repressive force with another.<\/p>\n

Or simply becoming it?<\/p>\n

By Marie Vaton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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