Pahlavi says there are covert defections within Iran’s elites — Jerusalem Post
In Canada, Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi said that representatives of the military and civilian structures of the Islamic Republic of Iran are allegedly secretly renouncing their loyalty to the authorities. In his view, the opposition movement has entered a phase of “active defections” to its side.
As the Jerusalem Post reports, Pahlavi addressed thousands of supporters at the Cyrus the Great II event in Toronto. He said that after the January protests, the opposition regrouped, changed its tactics and expanded its networks inside Iran. Pahlavi also claimed that more than 40,000 Iranians were killed in the streets during the suppression of the protests in January.
Claims of covert resistance
According to Pahlavi, officials and military personnel who retain positions in the state apparatus use secure channels to report their hidden disagreement with the authorities. He believes that some of them formally remain within the system but are gradually ceasing to perform the functions the regime expects of them.
Pahlavi said that these people outwardly remain in the state structure but no longer perform their former functions for the benefit of the regime. In his view, public defections of military personnel to the opposition may occur at a later stage, when the balance of power changes significantly.
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Cooperation among the Iranian opposition
Pahlavi linked the latest protests to a longer period of discontent in Iran, mentioning demonstrations for Cyrus Day in 2016, the 2017–2018 protests, the November 2019 protests and nationwide demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. He said that republicans, monarchists, left-wing and right-wing forces can cooperate regardless of their views on the country’s future system of government.
Among the shared principles, Pahlavi named Iran’s territorial integrity, the separation of religion and the state, personal freedoms and equality before the law, as well as Iranians’ right to determine the future system of government in free and fair elections. At the same time, he urged supporters not to consider the fall of the Islamic Republic inevitable or imminent.
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre also spoke at the event. He called for stronger screening of individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, continued targeted sanctions and preventing regime-linked assets from being moved to Canada. Canada severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2012 and designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in 2024.
