A group of Iranian dissident researchers, led by a senior adviser to exiled Crown Prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi, is visiting Israel this week to promote regional cooperation and peace after the fall of the Islamic Republic.
The trip, which seeks to lay the foundation for a future peace agreement between the two Middle Eastern countries, dubbed the “Cyrus Accords,” comes less than three months after the 12-day war against Iran in mid-June, and as the Islamic Republic faces an acute water and energy crisis.
“Iranians see Israel as a strategic partner in the fight against the regime and taking our country back,” Saeed Ghasseminejad, an adviser to the Pahlavi, told JNS on Monday in Tel Aviv. “One of the first things we will do is recognize Israel and reopen our embassy. And I hope that other countries will support us in this endeavor because a free Iran will also be great security for Americans and Europeans.”
He noted that Iran and Israel share an “ancient biblical friendship” that goes back millennia and stressed that the current regime, which came to power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is an “aberration” in the ties between the Iranian and Jewish people.
“A regional vision without the Islamic Republic is a vision shared by us and by the Iranian people, and today it is closer than ever,” said Gila Gamliel, Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, who spearheaded the visit. “The need to advance the Cyrus Accords, as a continuation of the Abraham Accords, is vital for regional prosperity.”
Gamliel hosted Phalavi, the son of the ousted Shah, for a historic visit to Israel two years ago and has served as the Israeli government’s de facto liaison with the Iranian opposition.
The exiled Iranian researchers now live in both the United States and Europe. They attended the “Beyond Horizon” 2025 conference in Jerusalem, meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and plan to visit Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, where they will meet experts in the fields of water and electricity, and tour a wastewater treatment plant.
‘Not an acceptable excuse’
“This is a first-ever historic delegation to prepare the groundwork for the Cyrus Accords between Israel and the people of Iran,” Ghasseminejad told JNS. “We are working with our Israeli counterparts, known as the Start-Up Nation, to come up with solutions so that when the regime falls, we are ready.”
He added that “the excuse that we don’t know who will replace the regime is not an acceptable excuse.”
Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on social media in a direct address to the Iranian people, calling on them to oppose their regime, and pledging that Israel would help solve the country’s severe water shortages once the Islamic regime is deposed.
Pahlavi has said that the regime’s days are numbered and declared the war this summer was Iran’s “Berlin Wall moment,” referring to the 1989 downfall of Communist dictatorships in Europe.
