Over the past month, the people of Iran took to the streets to fight for their future. What began as an economic grievance quickly snowballed into demands for change, calls for revolution, and an end to the Islamic regime that has held the country under its thumb for nearly 50 years.
When US President Donald Trump promised to help protesters, Iranians around the world felt hope that, finally, change could happen. However, Trump quickly changed his mind, leaving the people feeling abandoned and isolated.
“They need the Americans. They depend on the Americans,” Roni Insaz, an Iranian-born former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told The Jerusalem Post, explaining that the US may be the Iranians’ last hope for a better life.
With Trump’s flip-flopping, the world as a whole has been made to watch with bated breath, preparing for any and all possible scenarios. The president said he has no reason to strike so long as the regime halts executions, which reports within Iran claim have not actually stopped, but protesters have been begging for US intervention, and Insaz pointed out, isn’t that reason enough?
“There is enormous anger among the Iranian people toward Trump. He promised things, and now they feel he’s backing away,” Insaz said. “They love Trump, they love America – but right now they feel abandoned, and it hurts.”
Insaz explained that these protests have highlighted just how far the regime will go to silence the people.
“It’s very difficult for Iranian forces to kill Iranians, because they are the same people,” he told the Post, explaining that in times of mass unrest, the IRGC recruits loyal militias from across the region – Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – who don’t have qualms about opening fire into crowds of Iranians.
“They shoot at free people. You could say that the Iranian police or the revolutionary forces are not usually the ones who kill like this, and certainly not 35,000 or 40,000 people in two days. That’s why they bring in special forces from outside to shoot and kill people,” he said.
The dissapearance of fear from anti-regime protests
What distinguishes the current wave of protests, Insaz explained, is the disappearance of fear. Protesters are no longer demanding marginal improvements or policy shifts; they are calling openly for the dismantling of the system itself. This shift, he said, marks a point of no return.
According to Insaz, the regime understands this reality all too well, which is why it has responded with unprecedented force. Executions and mass arrests are not meant solely as punishment, but as deterrence – a warning to anyone considering joining the uprising.
The regime’s enlistment of foreign militias and the large-scale murders that have followed was in part made possible by the enforced digital blackout, which went into effect on January 8. Internet has only recently begun to return to the people, and that, Insaz explained, terrifies the regime.
“They don’t care about people’s lives, especially the outsiders – they don’t care at all,” he said. “But they are very afraid that what’s happening will spread around the world and that people will see the murders.”
When the IRGC shuts down communications, it’s more than just unplugging a router, Insaz said. It’s confiscating phones, going door-to-door, anything it takes to prevent the truth from getting out.
When the Internet is fully restored, he said, the world will see “things we haven’t seen anywhere in the world for many years.”
“I believe there is evidence of genocide in Iran, and I believe we will see it soon,” he said.
‘Pahlavi Barmigardeh’
Even with the country isolated from the global community, one chant has been heard echoing across the Iranian diaspora: “Pahlavi Barmigardeh,” “Pahlavi will return.” The chant is heard alongside “Javid Shah,” “Long live the Shah,” and it is a call for the crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, to take his place among his people nearly half a century after his father’s exile.
“Reza Pahlavi was a guest in my home,” Insaz shared. “I had a long conversation with him about Iran – first in 2022 and again in 2024. He said very clearly that the uprising depends on American support, and that it will happen.
“If the Americans give it a boost, it will happen,” Insaz insisted, adding that he still believes a US strike on Iran could happen in the near future.
Insaz emphasized that his hope for US assistance and a better Iran are not aspirational rhetoric, but a reflection of an entire people.
Despite decades of state-sponsored hostility, Insaz believes that the narrative of eternal enmity between Iranians and the rest of the world – namely, Americans and Israelis – is a political construction, not a social truth.
“The Iranian people are good people, strong people,” he said, adding that many feel genuine affinity toward Israel and the Jewish people. In his view, that connection is neither new nor theoretical, and the strong bond that once existed between the two nations could return.
“They love Israel, they love Jews, and they want peace,” he said. “We could do very good business together. In the past, during the time of the shah, there was cooperation, tourism, strong ties. It will happen again, God willing.”
Still, his hope is tempered by faith rather than certainty. “With God’s help, Iran will enter a new state,” he said – a future shaped by the will of its people rather than the ideology of its rulers.
Without sustained global pressure, Insaz warned, the regime will interpret silence as permission, and the violence will escalate accordingly. For protesters risking their lives in the streets, foreign support is not symbolic – it is a lifeline.
Born and raised in Iran, with family and close friends still living under the Islamic Republic, he described his message as a collective one: a call for the world to remain engaged, alert, and unwilling to normalize repression through silence.
Until then, Insaz insisted, the most urgent demand remains simple: that Iran’s future not be forgotten, and that the voices of those who seek peace be heard beyond its borders.
“The world must not be silent about what is happening in Iran,” he said. “Do not stop thinking about Iran or its future. That’s what the Iranian people are asking for today.”