TEHRAN- The Atlantic Council website ran an October 13 story to depict the Iranian diaspora, who are mostly monarchists that take the side of Israel, as the representative of the Iranian public opinion. 

Atlantic Council quoted some Iranian diaspora members who backed the Israeli regime and criticized Hamas.

The fallacy of the Atlantic Council is attempting to present the views of a small group of Iranian exiles as the opinion of the entire Iranian population.

The individuals identified by Arash Azizi, the author of the article, in his report as supporters of the Israeli regime, are actually long-time adversaries who have been working to overthrow the Islamic Republic for years. It is clear that they are simply saying what they are expected to.

The report presented two premises to prove its false hypothesis; however, both can be refuted.

First, the analysis referred to the “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I give my life for Iran” slogan and claimed that the Iranian people oppose support for resistance groups.

Supporting resistance groups, as per the report, would isolate Tehran and put a heavy financial burden on the shoulders of Iran.

The aforementioned slogan, which was coined in Iran’s 2009 unrest, has not stemmed from the public opinion of the Iranian people or the demonstrators. Yet it was orchestrated by Western think tanks seeking to widen the gap between people and the state.

On the other hand, the analysis trumpeted Tehran’s support for resistance groups in a bid to deviate thoughts from the financial, political, and military support that the West has unwaveringly provided for Tel Aviv in its war against defenseless Palestinians.

Metaphorically, the analysis claims that supporting resistance is an extra cost with no benefit for Iran. However, it should be said that nearly all countries consider national security when setting a foreign policy to ensure safety.

So, in case there is any support for the resistance groups, it is not a cost but an effort to ensure the security interests of Tehran.

Elsewhere in the analysis, the author claimed that the Iranian people enjoyed their relations with the Israelis during the Pahlavi era, namely Mohammadreza Pahlavi.

In fact, the claim that the Iranians had warm relations with the Israelis is just a distortion of history.

The Pahlavi regime did its best to prevent the Iranian people’s anti-Israeli slogans from being publicized. As part of its efforts to cover up Iranian hatred toward Israel, the Pahlavi regime threatened the religious speakers in order not to speak in public about the Israeli regime. 

As it was quoted in a book titled “Fourteen Years of Shiite Strategic Competition,” there was a match between Iran's national football and that of Israel in 1970.

After the end of the game, an anti-Israeli protest was launched by people in Tehran and they chanted anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans. 

The police tried to disperse the people but they pressed ahead with their pro-Palestinian rally.

Mohammadreza Pahlavi called the pro-Palestinian rallies “unpleasant” at the time.

In his idea, the people shouldn’t have chanted “Long live Palestine” and “Death to Israel.”

He said to Prime Minister Asadollah Alam that SAVAK, the intelligence service of the Pahlavi regime, “has not found the reason behind people’s protests.”

All in all, the Israeli regime tends to show that the Iranian people do not hate it and the anti-Israeli stance is just the government’s approach, not the people’s.

However, everyone knows that Tel Aviv’s terrorist actions have targeted Iran’s progress, including its people.

Massacring the Iranian nuclear scientists, fomenting riots inside Iran and many other inhumane acts are all plots hatched by the Zionist regime to halt Tehran’s progress since the Israeli regime does not bear the progress of any nation.