Iran International
The return of Iranian-American academic Hooshang Amirahmadi, a longtime advocate of US-Iran normalization, has stirred debate in Tehran, with establishment media divided over the merits of welcoming him back and the signal his visit sends.
Amirahmadi is a retired Rutgers University professor and founder of the American Iranian Council, whose shifting political positions over the years have made him a controversial figure.
Before his latest trip, Amirahmadi said his goal was not friendship between Tehran and Washington but the normalization of diplomatic relations.
"Friendly relations are different from normal relations," he said in an interview with Voice of America before traveling to Iran, adding that he hoped his ideas could help normalize ties between the two countries. He declined to say which groups inside Iran he had been speaking with.
While some pro-government media portray him as an opposition figure, some government opponents view him as an apologist for the Islamic Republic, citing his occasional defense of its leadership and institutions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In 2019, he attended rallies organized by Iranian opposition groups abroad and described himself as a supporter of regime change. After the killing of Qassem Soleimani, however, he publicly defended both the late commander and the IRGC in media interviews.
In a recent interview with Iran's hardline Student News Network (SNN) following his return, Amirahmadi referred to slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a "martyr" and argued that "history will gradually prove that Iranians misunderstood him."
He also accused government opponents of failing to understand the realities of Iranian society.
Some conservative outlets portrayed his visit as evidence that critics of the Islamic Republic were recognizing political realities inside Iran.
SNN wrote that Amirahmadi's return "is not an ordinary event," arguing that remaining within the opposition abroad without clearly distancing oneself from groups hostile to the Islamic Republic risked being interpreted as indirect alignment with the country's enemies.
"In these circumstances, returning to the embrace of the Iranian nation and redefining one's relationship with the realities inside the country has become an unavoidable necessity," it wrote.
Not all conservative media welcomed his return. Hardline newspaper Kayhan questioned why authorities had allowed Amirahmadi into the country.
"What is Houshang Amirahmadi, America's broker and Western operative, seeking by traveling to Iran?" the newspaper wrote. "Officials must remain vigilant against this longtime spy of the Great Satan."
Some social media users rejected attempts to portray him as an opposition figure and argued that his return served the government's efforts to weaken the exiled opposition.
"They brought Houshang Amirahmadi back to Iran so they can claim the country has become a paradise and tell all opponents to return as well," one X user, Omid Roshan, wrote. "They want people to believe resistance against the government no longer works and that everyone should repent and come back."
Describing himself as a reformist, Amirahmadi unsuccessfully sought Iran's presidency in 2005, 2013 and 2017, but the Guardian Council disqualified him on each occasion.
Reports surrounding the 2005 election cited his US citizenship and some of his political positions among the factors believed to have contributed to the decision.
Some linked his return to growing speculation that Tehran and Washington could eventually restore full diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies.
"The interests of the Iranian and American people require normal diplomatic relations between the two countries," Siamak Shojaei, a university professor in Iran, wrote on X. "I hope Amirahmadi succeeds this time."
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.