Arsalan Naamdar
@arsalannaamdar • 6,543 subscribers
Entrepreneur | Independent Researcher on Middle Eastern & Iranian History
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Johnny Harris, Johnny Harris I'm getting absolutely sick and tired of your factually incorrect, recycled talking points that you repeat over and over to spread false narratives about Iran and the Shah. I've been watching your videos for many years. Every time, I hope that because you clearly spend a lot of time researching, you'll eventually realize where you've been wrong and correct those mistakes in future videos. Instead, the same false narratives keep getting repeated. If you didn't have such a large platform, I wouldn't even care. Your video starts off reasonably well when discussing Reza Shah, but once you move on to Mohammad Reza Shah, your historical accuracy completely falls apart. To start, you claim: "The British are taking Iran's oil, and the Shah is okay with it, because remember, the British installed the Shah." I don't know if you understand how a hereditary monarchy works, but the crown passes from father to son. When Britain and the Soviet Union invaded Iran in 1941, Reza Shah's newly built military had no realistic chance of resisting two global superpowers. He was forced to abdicate and was sent into exile. His son then succeeded him, exactly as he would have under the normal line of succession. There were discussions between Britain and the Soviets about restoring a Qajar prince instead. They ultimately abandoned that idea because the Qajars had little support in Iran, whereas the Pahlavis did. If Britain had bypassed the line of succession and placed a Qajar or another political figure on the throne, that would have been installing a ruler. That is not what happened. Then you claim that "the Iranian people didn't like the Shah, they liked Mohammad Mossadegh." Who forced Soviet troops out of Iran after World War II? The Shah. Who reasserted Iranian control over the Soviet-backed separatist governments in Azerbaijan and Mahabad? The Shah. Following those events, Mohammad Reza Shah enjoyed enormous popularity. Now let's talk about Mossadegh. Who was most enthusiastic about Mossadegh's rise? The Soviet-backed Tudeh Party. The Tudeh Party, financially and politically aligned with Moscow, strongly supported him. Mossadegh certainly gained popularity among parts of the Iranian public because of his campaign to nationalize Iran's oil. What many people didn't realize was that the original D'Arcy concession—the agreement that handed Britain a 60-year oil concession—was signed under the Qajar dynasty, the dynasty to which Mossadegh himself belonged. So yes, it was the Qajar state that granted Britain that concession. Reza Shah later renegotiated it into a more favorable agreement for Iran. Yet somehow people continue repeating the myth that it was the Pahlavis who "gave away Iran's oil." Of course the Shah did not want Britain controlling Iran's oil indefinitely. What constrained him was reality. Iran had just emerged from World War II. It lacked the military strength to openly confront Britain, and unlike Mossadegh, the Shah had no interest in relying on Soviet support to challenge British influence. He also understood something Mossadegh failed to appreciate until it was too late. Nationalizing oil is easy on paper. Extracting it, transporting it, insuring it, refining it, finding buyers, and exporting it are entirely different matters. Iran lacked that infrastructure. When Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry before Iran was capable of operating it independently, Britain organized an international boycott. Oil exports collapsed, government revenues dried up, and the country was pushed into a severe financial crisis because oil was Iran's primary source of national income. The Shah's strategy was different. He wanted to continue receiving oil revenues, use that income to industrialize and modernize Iran, build the expertise and infrastructure necessary for an independent oil industry, and nationalize from a position of strength rather than symbolism. You are free to disagree with that strategy. You are not free to rewrite history. If you want to actually learn about this part of Iranian history, read this article.
Arsalan Naamdar15,610 görüntüleme • 9 gün önce
For the "Reza Pahlavi is not clear enough with his instructions" people This was Khomeini in 1978:
Arsalan Naamdar217,266 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
I genuinely try to always stay polite and respectful. But truly: Fuck Ana Kasparian. Fuck Cenk Uygur. Fuck TYT. Fuck Dave Smith. Fuck Scott Horton. Fuck all these people who immediately point to “Mossad” and “the Zionists” the moment a subject rises above their intellectual capacity. Fuck all of them. Vile, illiterate, and genuinely evil human beings. Ig @ itstalia___
Arsalan Naamdar140,333 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
For those who do not know who Fereydoun Farrokhzad is. He was one of the most recognisable cultural figures of pre ’79 Iran. A TV host, showman, poet, and later a political dissident who refused to legitimise the Islamic Republic. From exile in Germany he used his programs and concerts to expose the regime’s mass executions, expose its leaders, and openly call for its removal. He had a real audience and real influence. That made him a priority target for the regime. He also openly rejected the MEK, condemned their Marxist-Islamist ideology, their involvement in the Islamic Revolution and their alliance with Saddam, and warned against replacing one form of authoritarianism with another. In August 1992 he was assassinated in his home in Bonn. His throat was cut and his body was stabbed many times. A method that later became synonymous with the regime’s chain murders of dissidents abroad. He was killed because he had a voice that reached inside Iran and he used it without fear.
Arsalan Naamdar81,742 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
Great interview by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi on ABC Australia.
Arsalan Naamdar50,304 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
“The estimated age of this individual is 8 to 10 years old.”
Arsalan Naamdar57,100 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
Reza Pahlavi explaining the IPP / Iran Prosperity Project. The transitional plan, post regime collapse.
Arsalan Naamdar32,642 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
“Khanevadegi” (meaning “Family” in Persian) is a collaborative rap piece by artists from across Iran’s 31 provinces, created to showcase the unity of the Iranian nation. The artists wear black T-shirts featuring a map of Iran, with each province marked to indicate the region they represent. Never doubt the unity of the nation of Iran. These recycled talking points are the weaponization of false narratives used to push agendas, whether from the Islamic Republic itself, foreign actors, illiterate sons of former terrorists, or groups that seek to break Iran for their own purposes. None of those voices are seen or heard in this video. When it comes to the unity of the Iranian nation, they do not matter.
Arsalan Naamdar24,915 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
Reza Pahlavi, for all intents and purposes, does not owe us anything. His family built Iran from zero. When I say zero, I mean zero. A weak, fragmented Qajar state, one in which women could not leave the house without a man. One in which Iran’s internal affairs were completely controlled by outsiders. One in which foreign armies seized our lands to feed their troops while half our population died of famine. A country without an army, without national infrastructure, without sovereignty over its own resources. And I can go on, and on, and on. In return, we Iranians repaid their blood, sweat, and tears with one of the greatest treacheries imaginable in modern history. His grandfather, arguably one of the greatest men in Iran’s history, his tomb was levelled to the ground. His father was forced to leave the country he loved more than anything in the world. One could say it was not his illness that killed him, but the knife we put in his back, the betrayal of a nation he had dedicated his life to. Reza Pahlavi’s friends and family who remained in Iran were murdered, one by one, at the hands of the regime WE enabled. An entire generation around him was hunted, imprisoned, executed, or driven into exile. His sister and brother, unable to bear the weight of exile and the destruction of everything they had known, took their own lives. Reza Pahlavi has the money. He could have chosen a quiet life, a life of comfort and distance, far from the insults, the threats, the endless character assassination. Instead of spending more than four decades on this path, he could have lived for himself and his family, free of this burden. Instead, he chose responsibility. He chose to stand for the very people who betrayed his family and became the cause of so much suffering in his life. What does he ask in return? Nothing. No throne has been demanded. No position imposed. He has asked only for a national process in which the Iranian people themselves decide their future. He has anchored that path in clear principles, precisely to prevent Iran from falling once again into chaos, fragmentation, and revenge. Yet even for that, he is criticised by so-called “Iran expert” podcasters who have never carried the weight of a nation on their shoulders, who say, “He does not want to lead,” “He is not your guy.” All while he and his family live under constant attacks, threats, and scrutiny on a daily basis. Despite all of that, his love for his people and his land overrides everything. He continues to fight for us. I want to say we have done nothing to deserve it, but the people of Iran have proven otherwise in these past weeks. They are no longer blinded by decades of propaganda. They are revisiting their history. They are correcting the lies they were raised with. They are openly calling his name in the streets, knowing the price that must be paid for it. They are awake to the mistakes of past generations, and they have reached out their hand to him. And he, despite everything, has taken that hand.
Arsalan Naamdar24,647 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce
Reza Pahlavi II has repeatedly spoken about the structural weaknesses of an overly centralized monarchy. He compares it to a game of chess. In chess, the king is the final piece. When the king falls, the game is finished. In a system where all power is concentrated in one individual, all responsibility and all blame are concentrated there as well. The most important figure inevitably becomes the most vulnerable point in the entire structure. He explains that after Reza Shah, the continuation of the monarchy was seen as the only realistic way to stabilize the country. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was sent to study in Switzerland so he could return with modern ideas and democratic values. When he came back, he had to build modern institutions almost from scratch: schools, hospitals, infrastructure, the military, and a functioning state apparatus. Those responsibilities fell largely on his shoulders alone. Over time he became not only the main decision-maker, but also the main target for every failure and every grievance. That is exactly the problem Reza Pahlavi II highlights today. If a Shah is expected to be the central pillar of stability, is it logical or practical to place him at the most fragile point of the system at the same time? I genuinely wish that both supporters and critics of the Pahlavi Dynasty would take the time to listen to what these individuals have actually said, in the past and in the present, and understand the context in which they speak.
Arsalan Naamdar13,891 görüntüleme • 5 ay önce
Any nation or politician pursuing appeasement with the Islamic Republic is positioning themselves against the Iranian people. We will move past this regime. It’s not a question of how. It’s a question of when. Everyone knows it. You can stand with us now and become a long-term regional partner, or you can leave us to fight alone. Just don’t expect us to forget where you stood when it mattered.
Arsalan Naamdar13,751 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
Daha fazla içerik yok.