Madonna backs Iranian protesters in Instagram message
Pop star Madonna voiced support for Iranians in an Instagram post, urging them to “hold tight” as she reflected on freedom, protest, and resistance.
Citing restrictions faced by women and limits on speech, dress, and movement, she said she stood with Iranians seeking change.
"The people of Iran have not known freedom for centuries I cannot claim to truly know the suffering that has been endured but my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Iran,"she wrote.
Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi on Thursday outlined his vision for how Iran could reposition itself at home and abroad after five decades of isolation and confrontation with the world if the Islamic Republic were toppled.
The remarks he made in a video message seek to define what Iran would do in practical terms across security, diplomacy, energy, governance, and the economy after the fall of the clerical system.
Rather than focusing on personalities or transitional mechanics, Pahlavi presents a policy-based framework that contrasts sharply with the Islamic Republic’s record of confrontation, sanctions exposure, and institutional opacity. The message is structured around specific sectors, each tied to measurable shifts in behavior and outcomes.
Ending confrontation as a security doctrine
“In security and foreign policy, Iran’s nuclear military program will end. Support for terrorist groups will cease immediately. A free Iran will work with regional and global partners to confront terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, and extremist Islamism,” said Pahlavi in his message.
Iran’s security posture has been the principal driver of its isolation for more than four decades. Sanctions linked to the nuclear program, ballistic missile development, and support for armed groups have cut Iran off from large parts of the global economy since the mid-1990s. Even during periods of diplomacy, such as after the 2015 nuclear agreement, parallel regional policies limited normalization and kept secondary sanctions risks alive for investors.
People walk next to a mural with a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on a street in Tehran, Iran, November 5, 2025.
Pahlavi’s proposal centers on abandoning confrontation as a governing doctrine. Ending any military dimension of the nuclear program would place Iran fully back under international nonproliferation norms, reopening the path to inspections, sanctions relief, and structured security dialogue. Cooperation on transnational crime and drug trafficking – areas where Iran’s geography makes it a key transit state – would align Tehran with existing UN and regional initiatives rather than leaving it outside them.
From regional spoiler to regional stakeholder
“Iran will act as a friend and a stabilizing force in the region. And it will be a responsible partner in global security,” the exiled prince added.
The Islamic Republic’s regional strategy has relied heavily on influence through allied militias and political networks, particularly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. While this approach expanded Iran’s footprint, it also generated sustained pushback from Arab states and contributed to cycles of escalation that raised economic and military costs.
Recasting Iran as a regional stakeholder would imply a shift toward formal state-to-state engagement, confidence-building measures with Persian Gulf neighbors, and participation in multilateral security mechanisms. Practical steps could include joint maritime security arrangements, border coordination, and structured regional dialogue – tools that have been largely absent from Iran’s regional policy toolkit.
A clean break with four decades of diplomatic estrangement
“In diplomacy, relations with the United States will be normalized and our friendship with America and her people will be restored. The State of Israel will be recognized immediately,” said Pahlavi.
“We will pursue the expansion of the Abraham Accords into the Cyrus accords bringing together a free Iran, Israel, and the Arab world.”
Diplomatic normalization sits at the center of the proposed reset. Iran has lacked formal relations with the United States since 1980 and with Israel since 1979, a rupture that has shaped its entire foreign policy architecture. Recognition and normalization would reverse this trajectory, embedding Iran in the same regional diplomatic frameworks that have expanded since 2020.
Such a shift would have concrete effects: reopening embassies, restoring direct financial channels, enabling aviation and trade links, and allowing Iran to participate in regional investment and infrastructure projects from which it has long been excluded.
Turning vast reserves into predictable supply
“In energy, Iran holds some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. A free Iran will become a reliable energy supplier to the free world,” the son Iran’s former Shah said.
“Policy-making will be transparent. Iran’s actions will be responsible. Prices will be predictable.”
Workers service oil industry infrastructure in Iran
Iran holds roughly 10 percent of global proven oil reserves and about 15 percent of natural gas reserves, yet sanctions and underinvestment have kept production well below potential. Oil output has fluctuated between 2 and 3.8 million barrels per day over the past decade, often constrained by export restrictions and opaque trading practices.
A transparent energy policy would enable long-term contracts, foreign investment in aging infrastructure, and integration into global pricing systems. Predictability – rather than leverage – would become the sector’s defining feature, turning energy exports into a stabilizing economic anchor rather than a geopolitical liability.
Governance as the foundation of credibility
“In transparency and governance, Iran will adopt and enforce international standards. Money laundering will be confronted. Organized corruption will be dismantled. Public institutions will answer to the people.”
Iran’s exclusion from global banking networks has been driven not only by sanctions but also by persistent concerns over financial transparency and institutional accountability. Failure to meet international anti–money laundering and counter-terror financing standards has limited access to correspondent banking even during diplomatic openings.
Adopting international governance standards would have immediate economic implications, enabling banks, insurers, and investors to reengage. More broadly, institutional accountability would shift the state from discretionary rule toward predictable administration, a prerequisite for sustained economic growth.
Reconnecting Iran’s economy to global capital and trade
“In the economy, Iran is one of the world’s last great untapped markets. Our population is educated, modern, with a diaspora that connects it to the four corners of the world,” said Pahlavi.
“A democratic Iran will open its economy to trade, investment, and innovation. And Iran will seek to invest in the world.”
With a population of around 90 million and high tertiary education rates, Iran has long been viewed by economists as a middle-income economy with unrealized potential. Years of sanctions, capital controls, and politicized regulation have instead driven capital flight and underinvestment.
Opening the economy would involve restoring property rights, stabilizing currency policy, and reintegrating Iran into global trade and financial systems. The Iranian diaspora – numbering in the millions – represents a ready source of capital, expertise, and global connectivity if legal and political barriers are removed.
A future defined by national interest, not ideology
“This is not an abstract vision. It is a practical one. Grounded in national interest, stability, and cooperation,” reads Pahlavi’s latest message.
The roadmap for Iran’s reintegration into the global system contrasts sharply with the Islamic Republic’s record of isolation driven by ideology, sanctions exposure, and institutional opacity.
By anchoring change in measurable policy shifts – rather than slogans – Pahlavi’s framework addresses a central question for international audiences: not whether Iran can rejoin the world, but what rules it would follow if it does.
Iranian authorities deployed military-grade electronic equipment to disrupt Starlink satellite internet services during last week’s communications blackout, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
Activists and engineers were able to stay online using thousands of smuggled Starlink terminals, allowing images of security forces firing on protesters and families searching for bodies to reach the outside world, the report said.
Their actions forced Iranian authorities to respond, the report said, with the deployment of military-grade electronic weaponry designed to disrupt the GPS signals Starlink systems rely on. Activists and civil society groups said the move was rarely seen outside active battlefields, such as in Ukraine.
US military assets are being moved to the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs possible strikes linked to Iran, Fox News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
The report comes amid Iran’s ongoing crackdown on protesters across the country. US officials have not publicly confirmed the report.
Bipartisan members of the US House of Representatives urged the State Department to take action in support of protesters in Iran, according to a post shared on Thursday by Representative Don Bacon on X.
Bacon said more than 50 lawmakers signed the letter, calling on the administration to respond to ongoing demonstrations and to address reported human rights abuses by Iranian authorities.
The official X account of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who remains imprisoned in Iran, shared an Amnesty International petition accusing Iranian authorities of an “unprecedented deadly crackdown” on mostly peaceful protests in Iran.
The petition, hosted by Amnesty International, says security forces have used unlawful lethal force and mass arrests since demonstrations began on December 28 and alleges that authorities cut nationwide internet access on January 8 to conceal abuses rather than for public safety.
It calls on the international community and UN member states to urgently act to end what it describes as protest bloodshed and to hold Iranian authorities to account.
