{"id":301885,"date":"2026-02-20T23:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301885\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:35:09","slug":"global-iranian-protesters-see-reza-pahlavi-as-chosen-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301885\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Iranian protesters see Reza Pahlavi as chosen leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through all the protest movements<\/a> Iranians have witnessed over the five decades of the Islamic Republic, there has not been a scene quite like the one witnessed last weekend.<\/p>\n

Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called for a \u201cGlobal Day of Action<\/a>\u201d on Saturday, February 14, and what followed was unprecedented in scale, coordination, and symbolism for the Iranian diaspora. Major marches took place across the world, with mass demonstrations in Munich, Toronto, and Los Angeles, alongside rallies in dozens of other cities worldwide.<\/p>\n

Munich alone saw 250,000 attendees confirmed by police, with organizers estimating the number closer to 300,000. In Toronto, police estimates placed attendance at 350,000, while thousands more gathered in Los Angeles, where Pahlavi\u2019s daughter, Princess Noor, addressed the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"PARTICIPANTSPARTICIPANTS HOLD up flags, among them the historic Iranian \u2018Lion and Sun\u2019 national flag, as well as posters depicting Iran\u2019s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during the demonstration of the Iranian opposition on February 14 at the Theresienwiese fairgrounds in Munich. (credit: Michaela Stache\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a protest,\u201d she told the crowd in LA from the podium. \u201cThis is a declaration of a nation reclaiming itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In total, close to a million Iranians are believed to have taken part worldwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the numbers tell only part of the story.<\/p>\n

The long journey to the protests<\/p>\n

One attendee who traveled from Belgium to Munich, along with an estimated 30 busloads of Iranians, told The Jerusalem Post that the journey itself had become part of the protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a bus to Munich from Brussels. Many Iranians offered to cover travel costs for students or anyone struggling financially,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was an extraordinary wave of solidarity. Problems were solved collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey took 12 hours from Brussels. For others coming from different Belgian cities, it stretched to 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt every rest stop along the way, it felt like Iran was everywhere,\u201d he recalled. \u201cGroups of Iranians gathered, talking, recognizing one another without introductions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they arrived in Munich, the streets were already filled with Lion and Sun flags, the prerevolutionary national symbol that has reemerged as the banner of opposition to the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, someone shouted \u2018Javid!\u2019 from a window, and we all answered \u2018Shah!\u2019 From across the street another voice called out \u2018Payandeh!\u2019 and we responded \u2018Iran!\u2019\u201d he told the Post. Payandeh Iran \u2013 long live Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt as if we had known each other for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the gathering site, the scale of the crowd was hard to ignore. Near the entrance, a small girl stood with her mother handing flowers to German police officers. Nearby, a man with a disability leaned heavily on a cane, determined to be there despite the rain and cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had all come for our beloved Prince Reza Pahlavi<\/a>,\u201d the attendee said, \u201cand for the people inside Iran. Their eyes and hopes were on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lead-up to Pahlavi’s ‘Global Day of Action’\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the days leading up to the rally, messages poured in from inside the Islamic Republic. A mother whose son had been killed during the protests asked that his photograph be carried in Munich. Others asked those attending to chant \u201cJavid Shah\u201d in their place.<\/p>\n

A young woman from a village near Hamedan sent a message as the rain began to fall. When the cold set in, no one left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most emotional moment was when the prince began his speech,\u201d the attendee said. \u201cWith every passing minute, my pride in being Iranian grew stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spoke of friends and compatriots who never made it to this moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir blood will not be trampled,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir sacrifice will not be in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the rally ended, soaked and freezing as rain and snow fell together, groups huddled in caf\u00e9s to warm up before long journeys home. At one table sat two young women who had recently returned from Iran.<\/p>\n

Their stories would make good cinema if it were not for the heartbreaking reality beneath them.<\/p>\n

One said her father, a doctor, secretly treated injured protesters. Patients used coded language over the phone because calls were monitored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would say, \u2018I twisted my ankle,\u2019 but he knew they had been shot or hit with pellets and were too afraid to go to a hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The other spoke of her parents leaving water and food in their yard at night for demonstrators fleeing security forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three hours we waited for the bus passed in what felt like minutes,\u201d the Belgian attendee said. \u201cI fought back tears more than once.\u201d<\/p>\n

His conclusion was simple, and echoed across the world on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt that we will bring our shah back to Iran. This generation is paying for the mistakes of the previous one, but we want our children to grow up in a free Iran. I have never felt this proud to be Iranian. We do not doubt that we will prevail. Light will overcome darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reza Pahlavi’s unofficial coronation<\/p>\n

THE SCENES in Munich came just a day after Pahlavi addressed the Munich Security Conference, where he was confronted by a BBC Persian journalist who suggested he had failed to unite the Iranian opposition.<\/p>\n

Pahlavi\u2019s response was to the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhose name are people calling in the streets?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

From Tehran to Mashhad, Isfahan to Shiraz, protesters have for months shouted \u201cJavid Shah\u201d from rooftops after nightfall in a direct challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Republic\u2019s claim to legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Which other figure can bring hundreds of thousands to the streets in multiple global cities in a single day? Which other name echoes nightly from Iran\u2019s rooftops, shouted loudly by a population living in constant fear of regime reprisals.<\/p>\n

Saturday was the unofficial coronation of Reza Pahlavi.<\/p>\n

And yet, throughout the weekend, Pahlavi rejected the idea that he is seeking the throne.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNN\u2019s Christiane Amanpour on Friday in Munich, Pahlavi was asked directly about his ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want to be king? Do you want to be president? What is your role in this situation?\u201d<\/p>\n

His answer was consistent with what he has told the Post and others over recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first day I started, I considered my mission in life to bring the country to a point that we can have that final referendum and the people elect their first democratic government in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cThat, to me, is the finish line and mission accomplished in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any personal ambition. I\u2019m not seeking power. I don\u2019t want to have a crown on my head or a title,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey should look at me as a bridge to that destination and not the destination itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours later, that bridge stood before hundreds of thousands of Iranians chanting for the return of their monarchy.<\/p>\n

Pahlavi took the stage in Munich alongside his wife, Crown Princess Yasmine, facing a sea of Lion and Sun flags and calls for the end of the Islamic Republic. Last month, he told the Post that preparations were under way for a return to Iran \u2013 a country he has not seen in nearly five decades.<\/p>\n

In a statement released after the rallies, Pahlavi addressed both Iranians inside the country and those in the diaspora.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour resounding cries within Iran on the nights of February 14 and 15, and your remarkable presence in the rallies of the February 14 Global Day of Action were a clear manifestation of our national unity,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He saluted those inside Iran \u201cwho stand steadfast against the occupiers,\u201d and those abroad who became, in his words, \u201cthe external echo of Iran\u2019s national Lion and Sun Revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have awakened the conscience of the world and made it more difficult to appease this criminal regime,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Pahlavi emphasized the discipline and dignity of the protests, noting that Iranians had demonstrated respect for their host countries while projecting unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou proved that Iranians, wherever they may be in the world, are one united nation with one flag, one unwavering will, and one clear goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic and establish a national and democratic government is irreversible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toll of Iran’s protest crackdown\u00a0<\/p>\n

He did not hide from the bloodshed the protests have witnessed, with official figures hovering around 7,000 deaths since the protests began on December 28, 2025, and conservative reports estimating 50,000 killed over the near two-month period (some say that number was killed by the regime during the days of January 8-9 alone).<\/p>\n

The regime has reportedly targeted hospitals for wounded protesters, executing them in their beds, and also punished medical staff for attending to wounded demonstrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween us and this regime lies a sea of blood,\u201d Pahlavi wrote, directly naming Khamenei as \u201cthe Zahhak of our time,\u201d a reference to Persian mythology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tens of thousands of precious lives taken have become the driving force of a great resurrection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will remain by your side until our final victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

As talks between the United States and Iran this week continue to flounder over things the Islamic Republic has been unwilling to give up, such as its proxy network, ballistic missile capabilities, and a continuous and deliberate march toward nuclear weapons, the talk of war grows ever louder.<\/p>\n

As the US continues to build up its military presence in the region, with the aircraft carrier fleet of the USS Abraham Lincoln already posted to the Middle East \u2013 and Iran carrying out naval exercises with China and Russia \u2013 it seems US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may finally seek to fulfill their promises to the Iranian protesters and send help.<\/p>\n

If it comes to military action and the regime crumbles, as many expect, Pahlavi\u2019s return will be made a lot easier. As for him, last week saw him unofficially crowned by the people, and the people demanded their king\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

For now, Reza Pahlavi insists he is only a bridge. But he is a bridge the Iranian people want to cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through all the protest movements Iranians have witnessed over the five decades of the Islamic Republic, there has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,145137,125804,79845,43,52,21454,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-301885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-us-nuclear-talks","11":"tag-iranian-protests","12":"tag-islamic-regime","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-protests","15":"tag-reza-pahlavi","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}