Goldie Ghamari - Why Iranians Support Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi

00:00:00.000 As the naval blockade tightens and holds fast around the Islamic regime,

00:00:10.980 the world is asking one question.

00:00:14.340 What do the people on the street actually want?

00:00:17.180 If you turn on state-run media in Tehran,

00:00:19.360 you'll see sea-to-sea crowds chanting death to America

00:00:23.160 and waving Revolutionary Guard banners.

00:00:24.980 But according to data compiled by the Orion Policy Institute

00:00:28.360 in March of 2026 that theocracy's propaganda is masking a historic level of internal collapse.

00:00:36.820 Polling reveals that since 2024, less than half of Iranians support the current regime,

00:00:42.480 although it's likely much higher than that. The protests that swept Iran from late 2025

00:00:48.740 into January 2026 were officially the largest since the 1979 revolution.

00:00:54.680 The price of that dissent was blood.

00:00:57.840 At least 7,000, at least 7,000 Iranians were gunned down by regime forces in a brutal crackdown.

00:01:03.520 But some cite the number is as high as 30,000 or 40,000.

00:01:07.320 The exact number is unknown because the regime allows very little information to come in

00:01:12.600 and even less information to come out of the country.

00:01:16.600 Nonetheless, those protests proved that the regime does not have the support it once did.

00:01:22.800 But that leaves us with a paradox.

00:01:25.200 If the regime is so loathed, why are the streets still occupied by thousands of pro-government loyalists,

00:01:30.700 at least from appearances on the outside?

00:01:33.520 The answer lies in the IRGC's rent-a-crowd logistics just two months ago.

00:01:38.140 The Associated Press reported on the massive state-organized rallies marking the anniversary of the revolution.

00:01:45.340 For decades, the regime has bused in government employees, security forces in civilian clothing,

00:01:51.400 and students under the threat of expulsion to create the illusion of popular support.

00:01:57.360 It's a Potemkin village built out of coercion.

00:02:00.680 Meanwhile, the Iranian diaspora and a growing plurality of domestic youth are rallying around Reza Pahlavi.

00:02:07.620 The crown prince has seen a surge in domestic popularity,

00:02:10.820 but his most tangible claim to power is the massive defection campaign he revealed in January.

00:02:17.720 I have launched this campaign in recent months of maximum defection by allowing them to indicate

00:02:24.220 their willingness to part with the regime and basically not sink with this ship that is sinking

00:02:31.880 and have an opportunity for themselves and their own future and their own family's future.

00:02:36.220 That's part of our solution to go out of this regime, smoothen the path to a stable transition.

00:02:42.500 Pahlavi claims that tens of thousands of military and government personnel have reached out to his

00:02:48.340 aforementioned maximum defection campaign, if those numbers are accurate.

00:02:53.540 The IRGC isn't just facing external threat from the U.S. Navy, it's facing a slow-motion

00:02:58.820 disintegration from within. However, the sentiment on the ground remains complicated.

00:03:03.760 While the people want the malas out, the IRGC still controls roughly one-third of the Iranian

00:03:09.000 economy and every major weapons cache an uprising isn't just a matter of will it's a matter of

00:03:15.560 military logistics tactically the likelihood of a total uprising hinges on whether the

00:03:20.920 lowered level soldiers will finally refuse to fire on their own families are we watching the

00:03:26.680 final days of a theocratic terror state or is tehran's grip on the throat of its people

00:03:32.280 stronger than the protests suggest joining us now is our favorite iranian canadian and former

00:03:37.240 member of Provincial Parliament of Ontario, Goldie Gamari. Goldie, we have this conversation

00:03:43.160 every week. What's the lay of the land? What's going on on the ground? Who's still left holding

00:03:49.060 down the fort of the regime? Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. It's great

00:03:54.000 to know I'm your favourite Iranian here. It's such an honour to be here. You know, when it comes to

00:03:59.760 what's happening in occupied Iran right now, you're absolutely right to call the people on

00:04:05.400 the streets, rent-a-crowds. There's a few important points we have to keep in mind. First

00:04:10.320 of all, these are rent-a-crowds, so they're being paid. Every night, you know, anyone who goes out,

00:04:15.720 they get paid by the Islamic regime. That's the first thing. The second thing is that half the

00:04:20.340 crowd, or at least even more than half the crowd, they're not even Iranian, because we've already

00:04:24.400 seen footage of Islamic regime supporters from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from Pakistan. We've seen

00:04:31.820 Hezbollah. We've seen even like some Palestinians who come in and they join the crowd. So at least

00:04:37.320 half the crowd, we already know, is not even Iranian. That's why we Iranians say that this

00:04:41.980 is an occupying force. On top of that, you're not seeing the anti-regime Iranians coming out right

00:04:48.080 now because the Islamic regime has said anyone who comes out against the Islamic regime will be shot

00:04:54.760 down. And we already saw what happened to unarmed freedom fighters back in January. President Trump

00:05:00.940 confirmed over 40,000 Iranians murdered in two days alone. So that's sort of where we stand. And

00:05:07.220 so what we're seeing on Islamic regime TV right now, it's 100% propaganda. You have to keep in

00:05:13.280 mind, Iran is a country of 90 million people, about 5%, I would say maximum 5% support the

00:05:22.380 Islamic regime. So you're looking at roughly like four and a half to 5 million people maximum who

00:05:28.780 support the Islamic regime. But the other 85 million people, they're done with the regime.

00:05:33.900 And what they're saying is that they want the United States and Israel to continue the attacks

00:05:39.100 against the Islamic regime. They want the Islamic regime to be eradicated. And they only trust His 0.97

00:05:45.000 Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, to transition the government from an

00:05:50.560 Islamic dictatorship to a functioning secular democratic society. And that's why the internet

00:05:55.180 has been shut down now for over 60 days because the Islamic regime does not want the world to

00:06:00.620 know what Iranians think. Goldie, one of the talking points that is very popular out of the

00:06:09.960 regime, and we see it repeated even by, you know, so-called conservatives online, one of the popular

00:06:18.720 talking points is that this is a war that Iran is going to be able to just withstand. The regime

00:06:27.920 is going to be able to buckle down and withstand the blockade. It can withstand the shutdown. It

00:06:35.540 can withstand being closed in by the Gulf states and the United States. That narrative was repeated

00:06:43.860 by Joe Kent, who was formerly of the Trump administration. He resigned in disgrace, but

00:06:48.840 he argues that continuing the blockade puts far more pressure on us than on Iran. What's your

00:06:56.740 response to that? I think that's utter nonsense. I feel like Joe Kent has lost his way. He might 0.91

00:07:05.340 even be compromised because the information he's putting out is 100% incorrect. In fact,

00:07:11.100 the U.S. blockade right now is one of the most effective ways of helping contribute to the

00:07:20.700 collapse of the Islamic regime. And that's because right now the Islamic regime has nowhere to store

00:07:27.460 its oil. It's running out of storage capacity for its oil. And that's going to be a big problem.

00:07:33.880 And, you know, the Islamic regime used to make $500 million a day on oil exports alone. That

00:07:39.920 completely stopped and you know as we know it's not just about the military operations it's about

00:07:45.600 the economy and if the islamic regime has no money to pay supporters that's going to contribute to

00:07:51.680 the internal collapse of the regime goldie gamari always a pleasure to visit with you and get those

00:08:00.160 real updates we appreciate it thank you so much coming up gerard michaels takes a spin on headline

00:08:08.960 We'll be right back.

Goldie Ghamari - April 30, 2026

Why Iranians Support Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript