In an interview with ITV News, Iranian opposition figure and former crown prince Reza Pahlavi said that 40,000 Iranians did not die in two days for a nuclear agreement or to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, but for freedom and democracy — and yet, he stated, those aspirations are strangely absent from current negotiations.
In an interview with ITV News broadcast Thursday morning, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former crown prince of Iran and a prominent opposition figure, criticized the direction of current negotiations with the Iranian regime. Pahlavi argued that the mass protests and deaths that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 — which he framed as a two-day wave in which 40,000 Iranians lost their lives — were sacrifices made for freedom, not for a nuclear agreement or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. He said those aspirations for liberty and democracy are "strangely absent" from the talks.
Pahlavi's remarks come amid ongoing nuclear negotiations between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime, which have drawn criticism from Israeli and regional officials who argue the deal does not address Tehran's missile program or regional aggression. The Zioneer has previously reported on Iranian regime officials boasting that the deal preserves its nuclear infrastructure and proxy forces, as well as on Iranian parliament members calling for the execution of President Trump. Pahlavi's statement reflects a broader opposition position that the negotiations ignore the fundamental demands of the Iranian people for regime change and democratic governance.
The claim of 40,000 deaths within two days cannot be independently verified and exceeds most casualty estimates from the 2022 protests, but Pahlavi's larger point — that the protest movement was about freedom, not diplomacy — echoes a widespread critique among Iranian activists.
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- Internal intake