Imperialist media outlets, once again relying on their vast resources and capabilities, have launched propaganda campaigns and disseminated fabricated narratives aimed at restoring the monarchy. They are attempting to ride the wave of the people’s legitimate protests and divert the anti-dictatorship movement from its true path. On the one hand, these media provide an excuse for regime leaders to label the people’s protest uprising as the work of the United States and Israel; on the other hand, by exaggerating monarchist currents, they seek to create obstacles in the process of building unity and practical coordination among progressive and national forces.
Developments at home and abroad over the past few days demonstrate that the artificial and dependent current formed around the slogan “return of the monarchy” not only lacks a broad social base and a serious program for democratic change, but is also incapable of achieving anything without U.S. and Israeli intervention and threats—aside from sabotaging the anti-dictatorship movement and popular protests. Reza Pahlavi’s shameful request to Trump on January 9, under the pretext of “helping the people of Iran,” in which he stated, “You have proven—and I know—that you are a man of peace and true to your word; please be ready to intervene to help the people of Iran,” is a clear example of the anti-national behaviour of this current. In practice, such appeals have given the leaders and repression apparatus of the Islamic Republic the opportunity and pretext they needed—citing Khamenei’s order labelling protesters as “rioters” and “foreign agents” and warning that the government would show them no leniency—to violently suppress the entire protest movement by falsely accusing the people, through figures such as Pezeshkian, of being “terrorists,” “instigators,” and mercenaries of the “enemy.” Given Trump’s threats of intervention in Iran, the actions of Reza Pahlavi and the leaders of the Islamic Republic together could create conditions that smooth the path toward a U.S. attack on Iran.
Over the past few days, major Western media outlets and some Western politicians, by exaggerating the monarchist current and steering public opinion toward portraying the collapse of the Islamic Republic as inevitable—and direct “Western” intervention under Trump’s leadership as necessary—have been pursuing and guiding an “alternative-making project” for Iran. For example, since last Friday night, BBC radio and television networks in the UK have aired videos produced by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization, conducted interviews with John Bolton, and broadcast similar programs. Alongside major media in France and the United States, they are attempting to create an atmosphere and justification for intervention in Iran’s internal developments. The British government, a longstanding accomplice of the United States in advancing imperialist policies, also announced on Sunday, January 11, that it seeks a “peaceful transfer of power in Iran.”
In addition, we are witnessing regrettable actions by some well-known Iranian figures. Among them are Shirin Ebadi, jurist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Mohsen Makhmalbaf, writer and filmmaker; and Abdullah Mohtadi, Secretary-General of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan. In alignment with Reza Pahlavi, they wrote a letter to Trump calling for his intervention in Iran’s affairs—an intervention that would include military action. Is Shirin Ebadi unaware of the fascistic views, reactionary anti-woman and racist ideology, and aggressive, hegemonic policies of a figure like Trump and his war-criminal accomplice Netanyahu?
Within the framework of the plans of the United States and its allies for our country and the region, such appeals and reliance on foreign intervention in Iran’s internal affairs are in fact tools to contain and neutralize any possibility of organizing a popular movement and forming an Iranian force capable of rescuing the country from the current ruling dictatorship and guiding it toward national-democratic revolutionary transformations. These imperialist interventionist policies have been repeated many times in Iran over the past century. The Pahlavis played a fundamental role in implementing these policies, benefited from them, and in return granted major concessions to the intervening powers—against national interests—including during the August 19, 1953 coup against the national government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh following the nationalization of the oil industry.
After the overthrow of the dependent dictatorship of the Pahlavi family more than four decades ago in the popular revolution of 1979, the theocratic dictatorship quickly abandoned the ideals of the revolution and, in order to preserve the dominance of “political Islam” and protect the astronomical wealth of power-connected elites, positioned itself against the working people and national interests. For years, this regime has been an obstacle to fundamental national-democratic transformations. The situation has now deteriorated to such an extent that society sees all avenues for justice-seeking, equality, and freedom closed, and—despite repression—has reached an explosive stage of widespread street protest to reclaim its rights. Under such acute conditions, with a weak, corrupt, and repressive government, Iran once again faces dangerous threats from the United States, Israel, and their infiltrating agents.
The reality is that both the powerful forces and factions within the structure of the ruling dictatorship and the forces dependent on Trump’s America seek the continuation of some form of dictatorship in Iran. The first group pursues this goal either through preserving the existing structure centred on the absolute rule of the Supreme Leader—though its lifespan is rapidly approaching its end—or through limited changes aimed at safeguarding big-capital interests at any cost, while maintaining the current political economy within a neoliberal framework. The second group advances this approach within the strategic plans of Trump’s domineering and coercive government, in coordination with the war-mongering Netanyahu, to redraw the region’s geopolitical map. Today, Iran stands at the centre of these changes in its weakest and most fragile political, economic, and social condition.
https://www.solidnet.org/article/Tudeh-Party-of-Iran-Iran-on-the-Brink-of-Potentially-Devastating-Transformations-The-Urgent-Need-for-Immediate-Action-to-Save-the-Country-from-Dictatorship/