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20260914 203000 UTC
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[00:00:00] in Canada and his supporters ignored his
[00:00:04] calls. Canadian police established that
[00:00:09] of a Pahlavi supporters were behind the killing, so he is not popular and there is
[00:00:12] no real unity among his
[00:00:14] supporters. That
[00:00:18] distinction is
[00:00:19] a crucial. Being the most recognizable opposition
[00:00:23] figure, does not make someone the most organizationally
[00:00:27] powerful, and the events of 2020. si put
[00:00:30] that distinction under extraordinary pressure.
[00:00:34] when the United States and Israel launched direct military action against
[00:00:39] of Iran, some Pahlavi supporters anticipated a rapid collapse
[00:00:43] of the Islamic Republic. The expectation was straight
[00:00:46] forward. Military pressure would weaken the
[00:00:50] state, the system would fracture, and
[00:00:54] an opposition figure with an established international
[00:00:57] of profile of could emerge as a leader of a transition.
[00:01:01] but that sequence did not materialize, and
[00:01:05] when political reality refuses to follow the script written on social
[00:01:09] media, movements have to confront an uncomfortable
[00:01:12] possibility, perhaps they confuse the size
[00:01:17] of of the audience with the size of the movement. a
[00:01:21] political movement becomes consequential when it can
[00:01:24] a turn individual supporters into a functioning structure, people
[00:01:28] who communicate, coordinate, make decisions, build
[00:01:32] allies and act
[00:01:37] of collectively. Social media can create the appearance of all of this
[00:01:41] without actually providing it. A million views do
[00:01:45] in not create a political machine. A viral hashtag
[00:01:49] does not create a chain of command and supporters
[00:01:52] scattered across different countries do not automatically
[00:01:56] constitute an organized political constituency inside.
[00:02:18] of
[00:02:29] a Iranian society, one is the
[00:02:32] revolutionary identity of Iranian society.
[00:02:36] Iranians have sought independence for decades, and that is
[00:02:40] fundamentally at odds with the institution of
[00:02:43] monarchy. even imam khumaini, the late founder
[00:02:47] of the islamic republic view
[00:02:49] the palavi regime as a symbol of dependence and national
[00:02:53] humiliation. the martered leader
[00:02:56] of the revolution also described the palevi regime as puppet.
[00:03:00] regime based
[00:03:01] on this historical narrative, Iranians do not
[00:03:05] a see the palivi era through the lens presented by western media, they see
[00:03:09] someone dependent on foreign powers and who has spent
[00:03:13] years watching events on fold from western hotels
[00:03:16] as an
[00:03:17] outsider.
[00:03:21] this is precisely why the uncertainty
[00:03:23] surround internal network
[00:03:26] matters. it does not prove that he has no support
[00:03:33] a is inside a Iran, it reveals something much more important,
[00:03:35] in the scale, structure and operational capacity of that
[00:03:39] support remain difficult to
[00:03:41] establish. For an ordinary
[00:03:44] opposition activist, that might not matter
[00:03:47] much. For someone being presented as the potential leader
[00:03:51] of national transition, it matters
[00:03:54] enormously. The reality is that Riza
[00:03:58] Pahlavi lacks the necessary. means to an end, that
[00:04:01] is the power to form a coherent
[00:04:05] coalition from different groups. now uh,
[00:04:09] do you think that such a person can claim to be the leader of a
[00:04:12] political transition? if this
[00:04:16] person uh is eligible to run the
[00:04:20] revolution, is he capable of performing
[00:04:24] the job? does he want this
[00:04:27] job? is there any organic? relationship
[00:04:31] between him and his supporters and the real people of
[00:04:35] Iran who live there right now as we
[00:04:38] speak? yes, you can
[00:04:41] be a president, you can be the prime minister, you can be the king in
[00:04:45] media, but what about the real world that we're all living
[00:04:48] in? so if media stops supporting
[00:04:52] him, will his follower
[00:04:56] uh go look up for another way to be connected with him?
[00:05:00] is there
[00:05:01] a any organism, is there any system, is there
[00:05:04] any other tool that his followers can be
[00:05:07] connected with him or his team? well, I would
[00:05:11] say these things... doesn't exist in
[00:05:14] reality, and the big question
[00:05:18] is, do they let the
[00:05:20] critics, ask him, challenge
[00:05:24] him, anybody who wants to know
[00:05:28] about his plan, his big plan, his master plan, will be
[00:05:32] criticized, will be put down by his
[00:05:34] followers, so this is not a good sign
[00:05:38] of a person who claim to...
[00:05:42] be the leader of
[00:05:43] transformation, because
[00:05:47] eventually followers have to become something tangible,
[00:05:51] people, networks, structures,
[00:05:55] leadership mechanisms and the ability to
[00:05:58] act. without those things, political
[00:06:02] influence remains largely
[00:06:04] rhetorical.
[00:06:10] for decades, American military intervention in west Asia
[00:06:13] have left behind countless innocent victims and immeasurable
[00:06:17] human suffering. The war against Iran is no exception.
[00:06:21] Beyond the headlines and geopolitical calculations are personal
[00:06:25] tragedies that rarely appear in world's major news
[00:06:28] reports. This is one
[00:06:30] them. That
[00:06:33] night was supposed to be night of joy. In Kuhestak
[00:06:37] aport town in Siri County Hormosgon province.
[00:06:41] Families were getting ready for. a wedding, night for new clothes,
[00:06:45] seeing the bride and groom, music and laughter and children
[00:06:48] playing among their relatives, but at around 9 o'clock on
[00:06:52] September 1st, a US military attack on the wedding ceremony
[00:06:56] changed everything a matter of seconds. The explosion filled the
[00:07:00] wedding venue with smoke and rubble, music and laughter
[00:07:04] gave way to screams and cries. In the attack carried out by US
[00:07:07] force, five people were killed and nearly 70 were
[00:07:11] injured. One of those killed was four-year-old
[00:07:15] boy named Amir Ali Karemi. Amir Ali had not gone to war. He had gone
[00:07:19] to a wedding. That day he had taken a bath, fixed his
[00:07:22] hair and could hardly contain his excitement about going to the
[00:07:26] celebration. His mother was supposed to leave a little later with
[00:07:30] him and the rest the family, but Amir Ali, his
[00:07:33] 14-year-old sister Kiana and several other children left early.
[00:07:37] A few minutes later, the explosion happened. Amir
[00:07:41] Ali's mother later said, " there was a terrible sound, everything was filled with
[00:07:45] smoke, my heart sank. ran into the street and started looking
[00:07:49] for my children, but she could not find amir ali or kiyana. through
[00:07:53] the smoke and dust, she had only one question, where are my
[00:07:56] children? then the phone rang, they told me your son has been
[00:08:00] killed. Amir Ali, the youngest child in the family, was no
[00:08:04] longer among the injured. his body had been taken to the
[00:08:08] hospital within the first few minutes, so quickly that his mother
[00:08:12] did not... not even have the chance to hold her son one last
[00:08:16] time, but Canana had survived. Sharpnell had wounded her and she was
[00:08:19] taken to the hospital, doctors saved her life, but the wound she
[00:08:23] brought home was not only a physical one. Kiano had
[00:08:27] witnessed her little brother's final
[00:08:29] moments. Her mother says that even while she was
[00:08:33] injured herself, Kana kept crying and saying, "I saw blood coming from Amir
[00:08:37] Ali's head, I saw him fall to the ground. Now
[00:08:41] this mother must learn to..." without the little boy who filled their
[00:08:44] home with his energy, the child who was supposed to start
[00:08:48] preschool this year, the home that was supposed to be filled with
[00:08:52] laughter and memories after the wedding is now
[00:08:56] missing one voice. ami's voice, and perhaps
[00:09:00] the hardest question in his grief is this: a child who only wanted
[00:09:04] to go to a wedding and play with his relatives children, why did
[00:09:08] his last night have to be spent among smoke, sharpenel, blood
[00:09:12] and tear?
[00:09:16] Then comes an even harder test: can Pahlavi build a coalition
[00:09:20] or can he mobilized the people who already support
[00:09:23] him?
[00:09:27] Iran's opposition is not a single political
[00:09:29] camp. It includes monarchists,
[00:09:33] republicans, liberals, leftists, secular
[00:09:36] activists, ethnic and regional movements, former
[00:09:40] officials and groups with radically. different visions for Iran's
[00:09:44] future, a potential transitional
[00:09:47] leader therefore has to accomplish something much harder than
[00:09:51] attracking supporters. He has to bring people who
[00:09:55] fundamentally disagree with one another into the same political
[00:09:59] framework, and that is where the division surrounding
[00:10:03] Pahlavi become
[00:10:04] significant. Mr. Amin
[00:10:08] Sophi, an Iranian expert in International Affairs.
[00:10:25] their own personal goals, some of those goals were
[00:10:28] interpreted as regime change, but ideologically lacked
[00:10:32] clear vision for overthrowing the
[00:10:35] system. the ali
[00:10:39] karimi episode is one example, but it is
[00:10:43] hardly the only one. public disputes have
[00:10:47] repeatedly erupted among opposition personalities over
[00:10:50] who represents the movement, who belongs inside its political
[00:10:54] code.
[00:11:25] number of followers and during the 2022
[00:11:27] campaign, they recruited many high profile
[00:11:31] influencers. now he is pressuring them to deliver on
[00:11:35] promises they
[00:11:36] made to him. Pahlavi also issued several calls during
[00:11:40] the recent war, apparently expecting something similar to the recent
[00:11:43] riats. Karim opposed the Islamic Republic, moved
[00:11:47] abroad and continued his campaign, but saw no
[00:11:50] results and became laughing stock.
[00:11:55] more likely their dispute is over funding
[00:11:58] they had agreed on, we may see more revelations
[00:12:02] from other
[00:12:03] bloggers. the problem
[00:12:07] is not that political movements contain disagreements,
[00:12:11] every serious political movement does. the
[00:12:15] problem is that pahlavi's personal popularity has so far failed to
[00:12:19] translate into a stable, disciplined and broadly
[00:12:22] accepted political coalition.
[00:12:55] and popularity, economic problems give some people an
[00:12:58] opportunity to ride that wave, but anyone who
[00:13:02] truly understood iranian society would notilerity
[00:13:05] has largely existed, hilarity has largely existed
[00:13:09] online, while social media does not reflect the reality
[00:13:13] of Iranian society, such narratives are often
[00:13:17] driven by organizational interests and cyber
[00:13:20] armies, the question
[00:13:24] becomes even more revealing when money enters the
[00:13:27] picture. A Reuder's investigation recorded that
[00:13:31] several Iranian American investers had contributed more than
[00:13:35] $3 million dollars to Pahlavi's political effort,
[00:13:38] expecting that he could play a role in leading a future transitional
[00:13:42] government.
[00:13:46] The significance is not simply the amount of money. It
[00:13:50] is what that money represented. These people were
[00:13:54] not. merely supporting celebrity or a symbolic opposition
[00:13:58] figure, they were investing a political
[00:14:01] project, they believe could eventually produce
[00:14:04] power, and some later became
[00:14:07] dissatisfied with Pahlavi's performance and his response to Donald
[00:14:11] Trump's policies. That tells us something
[00:14:15] important. The greater the political expectations
[00:14:19] surrounding Pahlavi, the more difficult it becomes to hide the gap
[00:14:23] between political image and political
[00:14:25] capacity, people can tolerate ambiguity
[00:14:29] from a symbolic figure, they demand results from
[00:14:33] someone presented as a future
[00:14:35] leader.
[00:14:39] Then comes perhaps the most politically explosive issue, and that is
[00:14:43] Pahlavi's relationship with foreign power and the fact that he has
[00:14:46] openly welcomed American pressure on Iran as a
[00:14:50] whole.
[00:14:54] Un... February 28, following the launch of operation Epic
[00:14:58] Fury, he published an article in the Washington Post thanking
[00:15:02] Donald Trump and arguing that the moment could create path toward
[00:15:06] Iran's freedom. He also called for the
[00:15:09] international community to be prepared to recognize legitimate
[00:15:13] transitional government when the time
[00:15:15] came.
[00:15:22] That was not simply commentary on events. It was
[00:15:26] clear political alignment with an American military campaign
[00:15:29] against Iran and the message became even more
[00:15:33] striking in the days that followed.
[00:15:37] After American soldiers were killed, Pahlavi publicly expressed
[00:15:41] condolences to their families and thank them for what he
[00:15:45] described as their defense the Iranian
[00:15:47] people.
[00:15:53] For his supporters, these statements demonstrate
[00:15:56] pragmatism. An opposition leader welcoming the action of
[00:16:00] foreign power confronting the Islamic Republic.
[00:16:04] For his critics, they expose much deeper problem.
[00:16:09] If someone wants to lead Iran, but his political strategy
[00:16:12] increasingly appears intertwine with the military and political power
[00:16:16] of another country, where does his political
[00:16:19] legitimacy actually come from? That
[00:16:23] is not merely an ideological question, it is a
[00:16:26] question of political independence. A
[00:16:30] leader cannot simply assume that foreign military pressure will
[00:16:34] create domestic legitimacy for him. the
[00:16:37] opposite can happen, the more a political figure
[00:16:41] appears dependent on an outside power to create the conditions for
[00:16:45] his rise, the harder it becomes to demonstrate that his
[00:16:48] authority originates from inside the country
[00:16:51] itself, and there is an extraordinary
[00:16:54] irony here. even Donald Trump, the American
[00:16:58] president whose confrontation with the Islamic Republic, Pahlavi
[00:17:02] openly welcomed, has questioned whether Pahlavi actually
[00:17:06] has enough support inside. Iran to lead the
[00:17:08] country. In January,
[00:17:12] Trump told routers that Pahlavi seems very nice while
[00:17:16] questioning whether Iranians would actually accept his
[00:17:19] leadership.
[00:17:23] Riza Pahnavi has tried to introduce himself beyond a monarch
[00:17:27] and as a leading figure guiding Iran's political transition.
[00:17:31] Now to what extent do you think he has been successful in solidifying
[00:17:35] this change in political identity? among the opposition and
[00:17:39] the Iranian society, we need to ask
[00:17:42] this: where is
[00:17:46] this uh eligibility come from? does it come from a
[00:17:50] name? does it come from being
[00:17:53] relevant - to a dynasty
[00:17:56] which was toppled back in
[00:17:59] 1979, so these are the questions we need to
[00:18:03] ask, if this person is
[00:18:06] capable? of managing or
[00:18:10] leading, well then we can
[00:18:14] discuss this issue, but we need to ask ourselves, what
[00:18:18] is the background of this person? so
[00:18:21] anything related to this capabilities
[00:18:25] will answer the next question will be,
[00:18:29] is he a good choice, is he able to lead
[00:18:33] Iran through transformation period? so from
[00:18:37] what a... see or from what i
[00:18:39] observed and there is no fact against
[00:18:43] it, this doesn't exist in real
[00:18:46] world, that
[00:18:50] statement is revealing, not because trump is an authority
[00:18:54] on Iran, but because it demonstrates that even the foreign
[00:18:58] political establishment most closely associated with Pahlavi
[00:19:02] strategy recognizes the difference between international
[00:19:05] visibility and domestic.
[00:20:07] powerful political organization is far less
[00:20:10] convincing. He has visibility, but
[00:20:14] visibility is not power. He has
[00:20:18] supporters, but supporters are not necessarily an
[00:20:21] organized constituency. He has
[00:20:25] international access, but international access
[00:20:29] is not domestic legitimacy. He has
[00:20:32] financial backing, but money does not automatically
[00:20:36] produce political. and he has famous
[00:20:40] name, but famous name does not create a
[00:20:43] government. can we say that the major
[00:20:47] shortcomings attributed to?
[00:21:20] media to build his image and gain online fame, he
[00:21:23] believed live streams, likes and views could win over the
[00:21:27] Iranian people, but the unity the Iranian people around their
[00:21:31] leadership and the preservation of Iran's integrity showed
[00:21:35] that all of this was just
[00:21:36] illusion.
[00:21:40] The question then is not whether Razza Pahlavi is
[00:21:44] popular, he clearly is among sections the Iranian
[00:21:48] opposition. The real question is whether that
[00:21:51] popularity can survive contact with the realities of
[00:21:54] politics. Can he build an organization capable
[00:21:58] of functioning inside Iran? Can he unite the
[00:22:02] monarchists and Republicans, liberals and leftists,
[00:22:06] secular activists and regional movements? Can he
[00:22:10] command loyalty beyond the digital world?
[00:22:14] Can he persuade people who do not already support him that he should
[00:22:17] lead them? Can he dement? strate that his political authority
[00:22:21] comes from Iranians themselves rather than from Washington,
[00:22:25] western media or social media
[00:22:27] algorithms, and ultimately, can he
[00:22:31] turn popularity into power? so
[00:22:35] far, the answer to all these questions have been
[00:22:38] no, and the ali carry me drama has just been
[00:22:41] a case in
[00:22:42] point.
[00:23:15] You may not know this, but there is city that
[00:23:19] keeps. a metro while at
[00:23:21] war,
[00:23:40] if you follow the news, you've probably heard countless stories about
[00:23:43] conflict in the middle east, missiles, air
[00:23:47] strikes, ceasefires, casualties. but there's
[00:23:51] another story that rarely makes the headlines. It's the
[00:23:55] story of city that keeps
[00:23:56] breathing, keeps moving
[00:24:00] forward and keeps growing even under
[00:24:03] fire.
[00:24:11] A city that refuses to let war define it, and whose sense of
[00:24:15] dignity won't allow images of helplessness to become its
[00:24:18] identity. Let
[00:24:22] me introduce you to city where nearly 28 million daily
[00:24:26] journeys keep life
[00:24:27] moving.
[00:24:46] A city of more than 10 million people in less than three.
[00:24:50] 300 days, this city endured two major wars,
[00:24:54] during the second conflict in the winter and spring of
[00:24:57] 2026, more than 640
[00:25:00] locations were hit by missiles, rockets and
[00:25:03] drones. around 51,00 homes were
[00:25:07] damaged, yet more than 10,00 displaced residents
[00:25:11] were given free accommodation in hotels for
[00:25:13] weeks. what may surprise
[00:25:17] you even more is what happened while the attack... were still
[00:25:20] ongoing as fighter jets remained overhead
[00:25:24] and the sound of explosions echoed across the city,
[00:25:28] 250 new electric taxis entered
[00:25:31] service, two new metro train sets were added to the
[00:25:34] underground network, public transport, both buses
[00:25:38] and the metro, became completely free for residents
[00:25:42] affected by the war, parks continued to
[00:25:45] bloom, streets were maintained, essential
[00:25:49] goods remained available, 50 meters beneath the
[00:25:52] ground, engineers and construction workers continued digging
[00:25:56] new metro tunnels using advanced tunneling
[00:25:59] technology while the sky above them was burning.
[00:26:03] At the same time, architects were designing new metro
[00:26:07] station in the historic city of Ray, inspired by
[00:26:10] Iran's early steam railway and generations of pilgrimage
[00:26:14] journeys. This is also a Muslim majority city that had
[00:26:18] previously opened a metro station named St. Mary, with
[00:26:22] distinctive architectural design that reflects respect
[00:26:26] for religious and cultural heritage.
[00:26:29] Buildings, towers and neighborhoods were dance.
[00:26:32] damaged, yet within hours the city's roads were
[00:26:36] operating again, with traffic moving instead of grinding
[00:26:40] to a halt. even the rubble tells another
[00:26:43] story. construction waste has been recycled into concrete
[00:26:47] jersey barriers and protective planters that make streets
[00:26:50] safer. electricity generated from waste to energy
[00:26:54] facilities continues to help power parts the
[00:26:57] city.
[00:26:58] this is the story of a middle eastern city whose famous nature bridge.
[00:27:02] was publicly threatened with destruction during the gather
[00:27:05] there, gather
[00:27:07] there. This is the
[00:27:11] story of
[00:27:12] Teran.
[00:27:18] A city whose municipal government chose not only endure,
[00:27:22] but to keep building, serving its people, and protecting
[00:27:26] hope, reminder that even under the shadow of missiles
[00:27:29] everyday life can continue. This
[00:27:33] isn't fiction, it's the reality of a Metropolis of more than
[00:27:37] 10 million people in the heart the Middle
[00:30:23] The headlines, Iran says the crisis be setting the straight of removes
[00:30:27] is directly caused by the US and is radioactive aggression against the Islamic
[00:30:31] Republic of.
[00:30:37] military
[00:30:37] forces v retaliation after fresh saudi rates kill two yemen
[00:30:41] civilians.