After the recent statements of the former Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, in an interview with the “Whoto” channel, in which he stressed the need to support forces from within Iran for possible international consultations on Iran, a campaign was launched to grant him power of attorney in this regard, but it caused disagreements between Supporters and opponents in cyberspace in Persian.
At the same time, the hashtags “I entrust” and “I do not entrust” became popular on Twitter, and the discussion expanded, sometimes to the point of exchanging accusations, between loyalists and opponents, who expressed their positions using these hashtags in Persian and English.
And a number of supporters of the son of the last Iranian shahanshah, who fell as a result of the 1979 revolution, repeated on social media the slogan “We entrust you to take back the homeland,” and the response came from the opponents by saying, “We will not entrust anyone.”
Find legitimacy to negotiate
And the former crown prince had indicated, in the interview on the “Who and To” channel broadcast from London, on January 16, to the possibility of “negotiating with political figures to present a program or project” regarding Iran and added: “All we want to do tomorrow, There has to be acceptance and legitimacy from within.”
He added, “If it is decided tomorrow that we hold consultations on the international scene on behalf of our citizens, it is necessary to show that this is done with the support and representation of political prisoners, civil activists, and intellectual and political currents inside the country.”
In response to a question about whether the time has come for him to take on a more prominent role as the coordinator of the opposition currents to the Iranian regime, he said: “Simply, supposing that tomorrow I and others who are with me on this road conduct a meeting with a series of political figures, their first question will be what You represent it here.”
Campaign supporters
After these words, a journalist residing in Germany, loyal to him called Saeed Hafezi, launched the campaign “I entrust you.” A number of artistic and sports personalities, including singer Dariush Iqbali, composer Hassan Shamaizadeh, former football star Ali Karimi, and artists Hamid Farrokhnejad and Parasto Salehi Ronak Younesi and a member of one of the families of the victims of the Ukrainian plane, Mehrdad Zarei, support Reza Pahlavi. From inside Iran, Manouchehr Bakhtiari, the father of Boya Bakhtiari, one of those killed in the November 2019 protests, in addition to a number of political prisoners expressed their solidarity with this campaign.
At the same time, some supporters of the “I entrust you” campaign, including the singer Dariush Iqbali and the athlete Ali Karimi, asserted that they delegate the former crown prince only during the transition period and after the fall of the regime, free elections must be held that will determine the form of the future government.
opposing point of view
According to the American Persian-speaking Radio Farda, the well-known political activist, Ali Afshari, tweeted: “Although religious tyranny is the main problem, what is more important than the departure of the tyrant is the end of tyranny and deterring all forms of tyranny.”
He indirectly described the campaign to grant “the agency” to the former crown prince of Iran as “the vulgarity of political affairs,” and added: “There are circles at home and abroad that consciously seek to cancel the eligibility of political organizations and parties in order to preserve the political patriarchal system.”
A number of opponents also say that they prefer a person from inside Iran, especially a person among the political detainees, including women prisoners, to lead the protests and represent the demonstrators.
Opponents of this plan believe that due to the state of the Internet in Iran, not all people can participate in the “vote” to grant or not power-of-contract to Reza Pahlavi, and for this reason, this campaign is “undemocratic”.
“Iranian territorial integrity”
While opponents stress the “unclearness of the plan” of the former crown prince of Iran, and fear that any power will be granted to one person, on the other hand, supporters of it say that he has already “asked permission” from the Iranian people so that he can meet with international political leaders, and in his statements he repeatedly stressed the preservation of ” Iran’s territorial integrity, respect for the rights of all Iranians, human rights, secularism and democracy and that is why it has a “specific” programme.
In addition, the differences have reached their climax these days between the opponents over how to confront the Iranian regime. At a time when both Kurdistan and Baluchistan in Iran witnessed the largest protests and the widest demonstrations, some opponents raise the issue of “Iranian territorial integrity” from the danger of “separatists”, a charge that the regime has repeated since Protests erupted last September in Iranian Kurdistan and culminated in Baluchistan. Despite this, the Baluch and the Kurds insist that they do not demand secession, but rather demand their national rights.
For its part, most of the supporters of non-Persian nationalities organizations that accuse Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founding king of the Pahlavi dynasty, of suppressing these peoples with iron and fire, strongly opposed the campaign, and a number of their activists in the virtual space say that the issue of representation contradicts “solidarity and coalition” and considers it closer to the “caliphate”. And the state.”
On the other hand, the loyalists of the former crown prince support what his grandfather and father did and consider them symbols of modernity for Iran. Without what they did, Iran would have disintegrated into several countries. For this reason, they repeat the accusation of separatists against the activists of non-Persian peoples, even if they were federal.