{"id":79587,"date":"2026-03-04T19:10:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79587"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:10:06","slug":"after-khamenei-the-hopes-of-irans-largest-diaspora-are-fractured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79587","title":{"rendered":"After Khamenei, the Hopes of Iran\u2019s Largest Diaspora are Fractured"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Christopher Alam<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Southern California’s Persian community is the largest outside of Iran, with an estimated population of around 700,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alireza Hekmatshoar, the program director at KIRN 670AM in Los Angeles, broadcasting live. (Courtesy of Hekmatshoar)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Southern California\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 leaving the Islamic Republic at perhaps its most precarious moment in history.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 from monarchist to Islamist, right to left. He spoke to ACoM reporter Christopher Alam about what he has been hearing, and how he feels.<\/p>\n

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

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Hekmatshoar on a break between broadcasts at his studio. (Courtesy of Hekmatshoar)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0How do you personally feel right now?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s a weird feeling. There was happiness and joy when we heard that the dictator had been killed. On the other hand, we\u2019re thinking about the people inside Iran \u2014 what\u2019s going to happen next? So it\u2019s really hard, but at the same time, it\u2019s a joy. But I\u2019m worried and sad about the people that are suffering who don\u2019t have anything to do with the government.<\/p>\n

I personally was always against war. I believed it wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers that lost their family \u2014 even they are happy that the supreme leader has been killed.<\/p>\n

CA:\u00a0<\/strong>What do you think the future of Iran\u2019s leadership could be? Are the calls for Reza Pahlavi serious?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>Here\u2019s 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\u2019t know anything regarding the inside of Iran.<\/p>\n

I was raised in Iran for 30 years, I was working with the government as a journalist, but I\u2019ve been out of Iran for over two decades. If I go back to Iran right now, even I know nothing. I don\u2019t even know their dialect anymore. So Reza Pahlavi is a great alternative, and it\u2019s kind of a dream, his getting back to Iran. But I don\u2019t see any reality that he goes back to Iran and takes care of everything.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t let a civil war happen in Iran. I don\u2019t see anything like what happened with the U.S. and Iraq happening. The purpose is different.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0What support do you still see for the Islamic Republic?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>People here think there is no Islam anymore in Iran, no religious people, that no one likes Ayatollah Khamenei. This isn\u2019t 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 \u2014 the hardcore candidate, the most conservative one in Iran. That number, it\u2019s a very scary number. We have to believe that and we have to see its realities.<\/p>\n

CA:\u00a0<\/strong>What about Iranians who are skeptical of U.S.-Israeli imperialism and its designs on Iran?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>I see people who don\u2019t support war in any way, they don\u2019t like Donald Trump in any way, they don\u2019t like Netanyahu at all, and so they feel sympathy for Iran. They\u2019re not pro-Khamenei, they are living in the U.S., but they\u2019re against intervention, they\u2019re against the Israelis. When you talk to them, you think they support the Islamic Republic, but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

CA:\u00a0<\/strong>What is your local community in Los Angeles feeling? Your radio listeners?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>Iranians here don\u2019t want to hear anything besides: \u201cPrince Reza Pahlavi is going to go back to Iran.\u201d When you try to analyze the news and offer different options, they don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 people who were part of the \u201879 revolution \u2014 don\u2019t see anything in Pahlavi. We got calls at the station saying they\u2019re leftists, they\u2019re globalists, that I should be fired, that I\u2019m completely against Pahlavi, that I\u2019m an Islamic Republic propagandist, which is wrong. They threaten me on the radio, especially threatening to call the general manager and pull advertising.<\/p>\n

I said Prince Reza Pahlavi is a great alternative, but he doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t have better leadership after Khamenei, civil war may happen among many different factions inside Iran who may try to split.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s going to be very costly, and it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

CA:\u00a0<\/strong>Why do you think you\u2019re getting this reaction?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>They\u2019re 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\u2019t see anything else, and they can\u2019t tolerate anything else.<\/p>\n

I was talking to some leftists yesterday. I said: I know you don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0What differences have you noticed between the views of diaspora Iranians and those in Iran?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n

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\u2019t want to listen: \u201cEither you\u2019re with us, or you\u2019re without us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

CA:<\/strong>\u00a0What do you expect will ultimately happen for the future of Iran? What do you think the U.S. and Israel will pursue?<\/p>\n

AH:\u00a0<\/strong>They\u2019ll install a reformist leader to open the doors for Americans to get over there. It\u2019ll 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\u2019re going to be killed, like Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be like this in my mind: Beautiful high rises, beautiful economy, a very safe place. Outside it\u2019s beautiful, inside it\u2019s awful. But you\u2019re going to have more of a choice on how to do your business, you\u2019re going to have a choice on how you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s 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\u2019re gonna take care of you now. These things are not gonna work.<\/p>\n

I think anything that happens to help at this point must be on the part of the people of Iran. I don\u2019t see anything happening from outside of Iran.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByChristopher Alam Mar 4, 2026 Southern...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79588,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79587\/revisions\/79588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}