In the event of the dreadful Islamist regime of Iran’s inevitable fall, the Iranian diaspora some Iranians are increasingly rallying around Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the next Iranian leader. This makes sense, as Pahlavi is the sole heir to Iran’s arguably illegally dismantled Constitutional Monarchy, under the last democratically assembled government fought for in the Constitutional Revolution of 1906. This document created a parliament, created the separation of powers, curbed the role of the Monarch, and placed limits on the power of the Shia clergy. It also gave specific rights to equal citizenship for women and religious minorities. In the face of the Khamenei regime’s increasing barbarity and militancy, and the increase in the scope of popular revolts against the current regime in Iran, Pahlavi has increasingly come to be seen by many Iranian people as a legitimate figurehead to unify them towards accomplishing a transition to democracy.

This was my belief when I began advocating for Pahlavi’s policy of “maximum pressure” on the regime in 2023. I too, believed that transition to democracy in Iran would need maximum international pressure on the regime, so I joined an advocacy organization that made calls to Congress, attended rallies, and engaged on social media. Another reason I chose to lobby for the Crown Prince’s maximum pressure policy towards the regime was that up to that point, the only prominent Iranian voices on Capitol Hill were the Iranian regime’s lobby, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and other Islamist groups such as the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK). I worked nearly full time in this unpaid position that I took up most willingly, in order to save my compatriots from the hellish regime in Iran.

Like many others, I also held hopes that the Crown Prince would presumptuously work to restore Iran’s prosperous status quo ante. But the dark plans of the Crown Prince’s campaign would not be known to me or anyone else until the summer of 2025.

My hopes came crashing down in June 2025 when out of the blue, the Pahlavi campaign released a transition plan glibly called the “Emergency Booklet” – as if Iran could be reconstituted and reimagined in a booklet. The plan, still endorsed by Pahlavi, formally abandons his role as Crown Prince or King, voids the Constitution of 1906, and places all three branches of government, the military, and the media, in the hands of a secret council. The identity and numbers of this council shall “remain secret until after the regime falls due to security concerns”. Not only does this document close the door to any hopes to restoring order to Iran, but it also opens the door to a planned period of dark tyranny worse than anything anyone could have fathomed.

The document declares Pahlavi in his private capacity to be the “leader of the national uprising” and the selector of a secret council. But the “booklet” also declares that he can be dismissed by an absolute majority of the council. Even if I could trust one private citizen to run all of Iran outside of any legal framework but a small “booklet”, this arrangement is much like a circular firing squad, and immediately engenders distrust between the council and Pahlavi himself.

After the shocking document was released, Pahlavi’s core supporters reacted so negatively to the “booklet” that the campaign quickly promised revisions which were due by September 2025. We couldn’t imagine how such an irredeemable document could be revised, but waited eagerly nevertheless. But the promised revisions, understandably, never came. Why? Because the plan all along was to use the “booklet” when the proper crisis arose. Today, as the regime faces its most existential crisis, with US warships at its doorstep, a burgeoning economic crisis, a beleaguered Iranian population in revolt, and the regime slaughtering and executing Iranians on a scale rivaling Stalin, the Pahlavi campaign spokespersons are vigorously selling Pahlavi’s image as a great liberator, and a figurehead of freedom and democracy. They appear daily, and everywhere, on social media, on network news channels in the US and abroad, and to lawmakers and the public.

Many people shocked by the escalating violence of the Iranian regime, have fallen into the trap of accepting Pahlavi’s prescription because he is the most visible and superficially palatable alternative, and because they may not know about the booklet. The campaign keeps it under wraps. Pahlavi, after all, wears a suit and tie and talks about separation of church and state, and democracy for Iran. But this view still fails to consider that the “booklet” had always augured crisis in order to bypass the multiple deliberative processes of creating new constituent government, and has now placed absolute power in the hands of private citizen Pahlavi and his secret council.

Another indication of rule-by-crisis in the “booklet” is its proposal for a “referendum” within only three months of regime change in which the people are supposed to choose between “monarchy or republic”. First, why would the Crown Prince abandon the monarchy per the “booklet”, only to stage a referendum for another monarchy? This contradiction makes me believe the booklet’s call for a referendum is as sincere as the agreement to revise the “booklet”. Second, a referendum is the inappropriate vehicle for choosing the form of government. This choice is usually relegated to deliberative assemblies of experts and legal scholars. Third, with full control of the military, all branches of government, and the media, it would not be difficult to control the results of a Putin or Khomeini style referendum. The referendum’s purported “choice” and its appearance so quickly after regime change virtually telegraphs the insincerity of the Pahlavi campaign to relinquish any power whatsoever to the Iranian people.

One would think that the massive number of objections to the booklet would have been enough to trigger a course correction by the Pahlavi campaign, to pursue a deliberative process to create a blueprint for future democracy. But the non response to critics of the booklet has been steadfast and constant. When it comes to discussing constructive criticism or requests for meetings, the campaign has been a brick wall. Its manager, Amir Etemadi, has a claim to fame for blocking any Iranian on the X platform who gives him anything other tan praise.

Where does this leave Iranians who wish to help free their compatriots from the grips of the diabolical regime without falling for the tyranny stipulated in the little “booklet”? The best course of action at this time is for the Iranian diaspora and others concerned, especially the US and Israeli Jewish communities, to contact their representatives in the West and object to any plan that promotes Pahlavi and his secret council, until an appropriate deliberative process with representation from across the Iranian community could occur. Iranians must not trust one man and his secret council.

NB: The promised revisions have been released today, on the day the United States and Israel attacked Iran and killed several top regime leadership members.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)