Analysis/31 July 2025
Text of the secretary-general’s address at the Munich gathering
At the National Cooperation gathering in Munich, secretary-general Lohrasb Zeinali says the opposition needs a shared national idea, a strategy, and organized power, and that Prince Reza Pahlavi is the person who can gather that belief.
Text of the secretary-general of the Azarbaijan Movement at the National Cooperation gathering in Munich
A battle of wills to pass through the stormy strait of a historic nation called Iran
Ladies and gentlemen, honored Prince, greetings.
Nearly half a century of the shameful life of the Islamic Republic has passed, and freedom-seeking movements have still not reached a final victory. Why?
The answer is to be sought not only in the regime’s repression, but in the structure and the approach of the opposition.
Ideology, or a shared belief
One of the main reasons the mullahs have lasted is the lack of a shared belief among their opponents.
Revolutions urgently need an ideology in order to win.
The ideology of the Iranian nation for getting past the mullahs is nationalism.
Who is able to gather this shared belief and make a victory from it?
The absolute majority of Iranians believe that the honored name of that person is Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Fortunately, he too decided at the right time to accept leadership of the transition. Today he is the host of this National Cooperation gathering. As secretary-general of the Azarbaijan Movement for Democracy and Integrity of Iran, I thank the Prince. I hope this meeting is the first trial, and that the second will soon be held, far larger and more splendid.
Strategy and power
Victory is possible not through slogans, but through strategy and power.
Strategy means a map of the road.
Power means an organized force that can impose its will on the field.
To achieve both, a wise leadership is needed above, and actors with skill and courage below.
In The Prince, Machiavelli tells the ruler of Florence that a prince’s real power springs from the masses of the people. Today I say the same to the prince of Iran:
Prince, you must rely on the peoples of Iran. Your real companions and soldiers are among these people.
One of them is Azarbaijan, the head of Iran. Through history, and especially in the last five hundred years, the will and the flash of the golden swords of the Qizilbash, after eight hundred years, pulled Iran out from under the ashes of the Arabs, the Ottomans, and the Uzbeks, and returned its borders to the Sasanian age.
Leaning on these people, you can move mountains, let alone the mullahs.
Long live the land and the nation of Iran.
Lohrasb Sasani-far (Zeinali)
Secretary-general of the Azarbaijan Movement for Democracy and Integrity of Iran
26 July 2025