“despite the 30,000 deaths, there will be other demonstrations”

A few weeks after the bloody repression of the protest, what news is reaching you from Iran where your loved ones still live?

The country is at a standstill. Universities are still closed, as are many administrations. Many traders keep their curtains down, the national currency continues to plummet… It’s a zombie state. The people are in shock. The Internet connection returns and residents discover images of massacres near their homes. Iranians enter a period of several weeks of mourning.

Will there be other demonstrations?

Of course ! The protest movements are getting closer and gaining in intensity: 2009, 2019, 2022, 2025… In two weeks, two months, it doesn’t matter, there will be another mobilization. The economic, societal and political crises have never been resolved. The Iranian population will never forget these massacres. When you have lost your sister, your son, your daughter, you do not protest peacefully a second time. The country is on the verge of a very violent civil war.

Are the negotiations currently taking place in Oman between the United States and Iran a sign of hope?

If the Iranians are impatiently awaiting American aid, these talks will change nothing for the population. The Americans are naively playing the game of the Iranians, who are trying to buy time until world opinion turns away from Iran. Because the American conditions are impossible for Tehran to accept: zero nuclear weapons, no long-range ballistic capabilities – therefore likely to strike Israel – and the end of support for Shiite militias allied with Iran, from the Houthis in Yemen to the Lebanese Hezbollah. The supporters of the regime would rather be attacked ten times than give in on the last two demands.

In the event of an American military attack, what operation are we talking about?

There is no question of sending a single foreign soldier to Iran. The country cannot be invaded. Three times the size of France, it is surrounded by mountains, with the Persian Gulf to the south and the Caspian Sea to the north. It is a question of very targeted air operations: targeting the supreme leader and his entourage among others.

What would be the consequences of such an attack?

We must prepare for a global oil shock. That’s probably why Americans are thinking twice. Trump understands: he can do great harm to the regime, but there will also be a price to pay. It is necessary to carefully observe the Lincoln aircraft carrier and the F-15, F-22, F-35 fighter jets to see if they remain in the region or if they are returned to their American base.

How is the diet holding up?

I don’t call it a diet that sticks. The Iranian currency has lost 90% of its value in ten years. The country’s natural resources are completely squandered, even though it has the second largest gas reserves in the world and the third largest oil reserves. There are power cuts all the time, there is not enough heating in winter. The population is very educated. It’s a country that should be like Japan and is completely dysfunctional.

So how does he maintain his lead cover?

The Iranian regime is ultra structured. It relies on a network of oligarchs. They are opportunists, who contribute to the regime so that they can then have a good summer in Europe. We find all their children in Saint-Tropez, in Courchevel, in Megève… Their bank accounts are in Switzerland, all they need to do is buy a Maltese passport… In Spain, for a very long time, the acquisition of real estate over €500,000 gave the right to a ten-year residence card. A pittance for them.

However, there is a lever for the European Union to support the population: prohibiting these oligarchs from setting foot in the Schengen area for example. Ultimately, without this lifestyle, the oligarchs would turn away from the regime… But to control this territorial ban, a very sophisticated “Iran” cell would be needed within the European Commission.

And then there are the Revolutionary Guards, which the European Union has just classified as a terrorist organization…

Yes, this is the ideological arm of the regime, which follows the Iranian Supreme Leader by conviction. The population is taken hostage, at the mercy of the Revolutionary Guards. They shoot their fellow citizens because they do not perceive them as such. They feel invested with a divine mission: to maintain the religious system in place until the return of the hidden imam.

One of the consequences within the population is the massive rejection of Islam, a visceral hatred. This anti-religious taboo has been shattered. People openly mock the prophet.

You yourself converted to Catholicism.

I was lucky to grow up in a family of academics, where intellectual curiosity was the virtue par excellence. In our house, reading is sacred. It is for this reason, I suppose, that my father could not leave me away from a text as foundational as the Bible. He gave me a copy translated into Persian when I was a student. Immediately, I was touched by the reading of Saint John, as we say in our language “it landed on my heart. »

But I couldn’t go any further. Conversions are punishable by death. Iran is extremely vigilant on this point: if the inhabitants are moving further and further away from Islam, the Iranian remains spiritual. The regime fears a wave of evangelization.

And then I met my future wife, a French woman on a university exchange in Tehran… I accompanied her in front of the church, without being able to enter. The priest would have stopped me, he would have had too many problems. When I arrived in France with my future wife, I turned more and more towards Catholics. Until I took the plunge and got baptized two years ago, at the same time as our daughter.

So it was love that brought you to France?

More or less. I already had a personal attachment to the Land of Enlightenment. I lived there from the age of three to ten, my parents did their doctorates in Rennes. Back in Iran, we watched David Pujadas’ television news while on Saturday evening, we sat in front of the show We are not in bed using a satellite antenna. As I remember, we had access to the rebroadcast a week late!

I grew up in a very Francophile world. I never had weekends, because on the only day off in Iran, Friday, my parents sent me to the French embassy to take French lessons. When I was little, I dreamed of having the Legion of Honor!

Have you returned to Iran since?

No, even if I thought I would come back six months later. We didn’t really say goodbye with my loved ones. I left early in the morning, I didn’t want to wake my brothers and sisters. I didn’t say goodbye to my mother either. She has since died without me being able to go to her funeral…