Southern California’s Persian community is the largest outside of Iran, with an estimated population of around 700,000. In the wake of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, reactions within this community have been sharply divided.
The war shows no sign of concluding soon. President Trump has said he intends to continue the bombardment for at least four to five weeks — leaving the Islamic Republic at perhaps its most precarious moment in history.
Alireza Hekmatshoar is the program director at KIRN 670AM, a Persian radio station based in Los Angeles, where he hosts a daily news talk show. Through his work, he has been in conversation with Iranians across the political spectrum — from monarchist to Islamist, right to left. He spoke to ACoM reporter Christopher Alam about what he has been hearing, and how he feels.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
CA: How do you personally feel right now?
AH: It’s a weird feeling. There was happiness and joy when we heard that the dictator had been killed. On the other hand, we’re thinking about the people inside Iran — what’s going to happen next? So it’s really hard, but at the same time, it’s a joy. But I’m worried and sad about the people that are suffering who don’t have anything to do with the government.
I personally was always against war. I believed it wouldn’t bring us any democratic government. But after the January protests, seeing how the regime killed its own people, I realized we definitely need to do something about it, and that help could only come from Israel and the United States, because no other country can take them out.
I really can not ask Donald Trump to attack my country or keep continuing war. This is not my job. But when I see the people inside of Iran — mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers that lost their family — even they are happy that the supreme leader has been killed.
CA: What do you think the future of Iran’s leadership could be? Are the calls for Reza Pahlavi serious?
AH: Here’s the deal. We have a great alternative who has been raised in the U.S. as a first country, as a democratic country, and he knows all the rules. But in my opinion, he doesn’t know anything regarding the inside of Iran.
I was raised in Iran for 30 years, I was working with the government as a journalist, but I’ve been out of Iran for over two decades. If I go back to Iran right now, even I know nothing. I don’t even know their dialect anymore. So Reza Pahlavi is a great alternative, and it’s kind of a dream, his getting back to Iran. But I don’t see any reality that he goes back to Iran and takes care of everything.
I see a system right now where the U.S. is looking for an economic counterweight against China, and Iran has the best potential for this. Control their oil, ensure China pays fair rates like other countries. This is the biggest chance for the United States. My hope is they take care of everything very fast, that the American manufacturers and technologists don’t let a civil war happen in Iran. I don’t see anything like what happened with the U.S. and Iraq happening. The purpose is different.
CA: What support do you still see for the Islamic Republic?
AH: People here think there is no Islam anymore in Iran, no religious people, that no one likes Ayatollah Khamenei. This isn’t right. In reality, we have over 60 million Iranians over 18 who can vote. During the 2024 elections, where Masud Pazishkian won, there were 13 million votes for Saeed Jalili — the hardcore candidate, the most conservative one in Iran. That number, it’s a very scary number. We have to believe that and we have to see its realities.
CA: What about Iranians who are skeptical of U.S.-Israeli imperialism and its designs on Iran?
AH: I see people who don’t support war in any way, they don’t like Donald Trump in any way, they don’t like Netanyahu at all, and so they feel sympathy for Iran. They’re not pro-Khamenei, they are living in the U.S., but they’re against intervention, they’re against the Israelis. When you talk to them, you think they support the Islamic Republic, but they don’t.
CA: What is your local community in Los Angeles feeling? Your radio listeners?
AH: Iranians here don’t want to hear anything besides: “Prince Reza Pahlavi is going to go back to Iran.” When you try to analyze the news and offer different options, they don’t like it.
On KIRN, we do a daily political show about Iran, and an evening show with an expert on every single day. The experts have a range of opinions; some — people who were part of the ‘79 revolution — don’t see anything in Pahlavi. We got calls at the station saying they’re leftists, they’re globalists, that I should be fired, that I’m completely against Pahlavi, that I’m an Islamic Republic propagandist, which is wrong. They threaten me on the radio, especially threatening to call the general manager and pull advertising.
I said Prince Reza Pahlavi is a great alternative, but he doesn’t live in Iran. We are talking about needing someone who knows people inside of Iran. In 48 hours of protests in January, the government shot down over 30,000 of their own people on purpose. If we don’t have better leadership after Khamenei, civil war may happen among many different factions inside Iran who may try to split.
I think it’s going to be very costly, and it’s not going to benefit Donald Trump as a president of the United States unless he has great partners in the Iranian government ready to collaborate with him.
CA: Why do you think you’re getting this reaction?
AH: They’re angry. They had to leave everything they had in Iran with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and come to the United States. Some left their families and the Islamic Republic executed them. But because of this violence and the anger inside them, they can’t see anything else, and they can’t tolerate anything else.
I was talking to some leftists yesterday. I said: I know you don’t like the Pahlavis. I know you did everything during the revolution to get rid of them, and now people ask for the son of the Shah to come back. But instead of reforming the Shah, you asked him to leave, and what happened to the country? Now trust someone else.
CA: What differences have you noticed between the views of diaspora Iranians and those in Iran?
AH: I’ve lived here for 22 years. Some in the community have lived here over 30 years. But the thing they never learned is democracy. They want to bring democracy for Iranian people, but they judge me here. They are ready to execute me because instead of just having a voice from the right, we had a voice from the left as well. How are you talking about the Islamic Republic as a dictatorship, then doing it here in the United States with your own people?
Some in Iran, especially Generation Z, know and understand democracy much better than an Iranian-American who has lived here for 40 years. Swear to God. They are more open-minded. They listen and they may criticize you, but they engage. Here, they don’t want to listen: “Either you’re with us, or you’re without us.”
Generation Z are the people who are going to handle this country. Especially women. They work so hard for their own rights in a country that supports men over the women. The youth in Iran, they are the generation we can count on. Forget about the older generation.
CA: What do you expect will ultimately happen for the future of Iran? What do you think the U.S. and Israel will pursue?
AH: They’ll install a reformist leader to open the doors for Americans to get over there. It’ll be a model like Saudi Arabia. No democracy at all, but women will have more rights, no mandatory hijab, people can have a drink somewhere. The economy is going to be good, but no one can talk about the government. If you talk, you’re going to be killed, like Saudi Arabia.
It’s going to be like this in my mind: Beautiful high rises, beautiful economy, a very safe place. Outside it’s beautiful, inside it’s awful. But you’re going to have more of a choice on how to do your business, you’re going to have a choice on how you’re gonna dress up and go on the street. If there is a mosque on one side of the street, for example, on the other side can be a club where you can have your drinks.
But it’s not going to be like a European country, where you can protest in a demonstration and then the government says: Okay, thank you so much, we’re gonna take care of you now. These things are not gonna work.
I think anything that happens to help at this point must be on the part of the people of Iran. I don’t see anything happening from outside of Iran.
