Iranian opposition’s Emergency Booklet needs constitutional integrity – opinion
By allowing an open dialogue, a well-planned vision can genuinely renew Iran, bolstering Israel’s security and the US-Israel alliance against mutual foes.
By Daniel Jafari, Ali Saadat Meli
(September 8, 2025 / Jerusalem Post) In their August 31 Jerusalem Post op-ed, “Backing Pahlavi’s transition plan,” Saeed Ghasseminejad and Aidin Panahi advocate for Western support of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s vision, as detailed in the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) Emergency Booklet developed under its Iran Prosperity Project. They emphasize the regime’s vulnerabilities (economic collapse, protests, and isolation) and the promise of a democratic Iran dismantling nuclear threats and proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, advancing Israel’s security and regional peace via the Abraham Accords.
As proponents of Iran’s constitutional monarchy, we echo this hope for regime change. However, the op-ed glosses over significant flaws in NUFDI’s booklet, dismissing critics in a manner that fragments the opposition and overlooks NUFDI’s own history of failure.
Division in opposition camp
Ghasseminejad and Panahi brand critics of the Emergency Booklet as “MEK trolls” or “Tehran’s cyber units,” alleging sabotage by a “Marxist-Islamist cult.” This is a gross misrepresentation of the criticisms of NUFDI’s booklet. Indeed, its most vocal critics have been the secular, right-of-center, pro-monarchy activists and organizations inside and outside Iran.
It’s ironic that Ghasseminejad, who started his political career as a leader in the Office for Strengthening of Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries (Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat-e Hozeh va Daneshgah), a left-wing Islamist student group aligned with the faux-reformist faction of the Islamic Republic regime, accuses detractors of being leftists.
Alarming authors
Disconcertingly, some of the authors of the Emergency Booklet have a very recent history of anti-Israeli bias. For example, Ms. Anahita Hosseini, one of its authors, sorrowfully complains in a social media post that “the world condemns Iran [but] never questions why Israel has nuclear weapons.”
On June 15, Hosseini called on Iranians and non-Iranians to “condemn Israel’s attack [on the Islamic Republic in the 12-day war].” It is worth noting that one of the main criticisms of the booklet is that it tries to recreate the power structures of the Islamic Republic. It’s perfectly legitimate to question Ghasseminejad’s motives for involving such individuals as authors.
The names of prominent supporters of the Emergency Booklet are cause for more alarm. For example, Sadegh Bigdeli, a former senior consultant and negotiator under Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Javad Zarif, is one of many such figures.
Bigdeli was appointed in 2014 to negotiate on behalf of the Islamic Republic. He has defended the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal as a “diplomatic achievement,” while the pact has been lambasted by many observers for enriching Tehran, funding terrorism against Israel, and failing to halt its nuclear march toward breakout capability.
NUFDI’S eagerness to collaborate with such figures may be a natural consequence of their unwillingness or inability to work with more principled right-of-center Iranians who oppose the Islamic Republic. Through years of burning bridges with the opposition, it is left with the newly defected figures from the regime to ally with, with little to no results to show for their efforts.
NUFDI’s inclusion of figures with past ties to the regime or support for deals like the JCPOA has eroded public confidence in their sincerity.
Constitutional backing is necessary
The Emergency Booklet also risks echoing 1979’s transitional failures, where ambiguities enabled theocratic authoritarianism. A detailed critique from the Iranian Americans for Liberty exposes further flaws, arguing that NUFDI preemptively discards Iran’s pre-1979 Constitution, creating a legal vacuum prone to chaos while creating an unaccountable “National Uprising Institution” mimicking Ayatollah Khomeini’s “Revolutionary Council.”
Many observers have raised questions about NUFDI’s problematic attitude: demanding unquestioned allegiance, stifling dissent, and making poor advisory choices that have fragmented many of their initiatives over the past 12 years, resulting in an endless cycle of failures and bitter divisions. This divisiveness aids the regime, prolonging threats to Israel from Iranian proxies.
Historical ties, such as the Pahlavi-era friendship between Iran and Israel, suggest that returning to the pre-1979 Constitution in Iran (with the necessary amendments and updates via legitimate mechanisms provided in the Constitution) could foster peace and curb terrorism. Anchoring the plan in the Pahlavi-era Constitution offers interim stability while simultaneously enabling principled reforms to the said Constitution.
By allowing an open dialogue, a well-planned vision can genuinely renew Iran, bolstering Israel’s security and the US-Israel alliance against mutual foes. It is unfortunate that NUFDI and Mr. Ghasseminejad have decided against such dialogue.
Dr. Daniel Jafari, an emergency medicine and critical care physician based in New York, has served as president of Iranian Americans for Liberty for five years. IAL advocates for the freedoms of Iranians worldwide, championing human rights and democratic values.
Ali Saadat Meli, recipient of the 2022 Steven Sass Righteous Friend of Zion Award from the Zionist Organization of America, is an Iranian American finance expert and activist. Formerly a Goldman Sachs partner, he advocates for peace and against Iranian regime extremism.
This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and can be viewed here.