Iran (MNN) — Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, visited Germany this week to continue his campaign for political change for Iran.

Pahlavi was in Germany in mid-February too, as part of the Munich Security Conference, just a few weeks before the United States-Israel war on Iran began. The 65-year-old is the son of Iran’s former shah deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He has proposed to lead a transitional democratic government in the event of Iran’s regime falling.

HIH Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran (Photo By FDD – FDD Maximum Support: Operationalizing the Other Iran Policy Event, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Talk of regime change has become familiar to Heart4Iran’s team, says Edwin Abnous, the ministry’s executive director. The team feels the tension between their spiritual mission and the political hopes of those they serve. Yet in these tensions, the ministry holds to a few guiding principles. 

“We want to make sure that our approach is Christ-centric, and we want to make sure we care about the good of the nation, rather than siding with certain political opposition,” Abnous says. “We want to make sure that we are outspoken and echoing the realities on the ground anytime there is an injustice, especially for the Church.”

This requires sensitivity. Abnous explains that Iranians in the diaspora can risk political statements that those within Iran can’t. That is especially true for Christians in Iran. Under the nation’s Islamic theocracy, calling Christ Lord is seen as political opposition. 

“[Christians] cannot call Khamenei or his son ‘Ayatollah,’ which means ‘the sign of Allah’ or ‘appointed by Allah,’ because they do not believe in Allah. They do not believe that Allah will assign someone to oversee the country,” Abnous explains. 

Christians are especially vulnerable after uprisings or external threats are removed — such as the extended reprieve of the United States-Iran ceasefire.  Christians are historically labeled “Zionists” or accused of working with enemy governments. Abnous says that events like this ceasefire give the regime space to refocus on internal control. Just one example of regime crackdown is the 56-day internet blackout (as of April 24, 2026) that Iranians have endured.

(Photo courtesy of Gilles Lambert/Unsplash)

“Especially in the West, we look at internet access as a convenience. But for Iran, it is oxygen — not only for the Iranian citizens, but also for the Christians,” says Abnous. “If you cannot connect with [the underground church] and help them and provide pastoral care, that is a huge interruption to our ministry.”

Since connection is so critical for discipleship, Abnous says Heart4Iran’s contingency plan focuses on resilience and redundancy.

“We do not rely on a single communication channel. We want to make sure that we are providing all different types of mediums for [Iranians] not only to consume, but also to be able to connect with us,” he explains. “We structure our ministry so we can function even if we are isolated.”

Heart4Iran’s mediums include satellite TV, social media, a 24/7 call center, Bible distribution, and more. Just one of their two satellite signals is estimated to reach 810,000 to over 1 million viewers. 

Please pray for endurance, open communication lines, and emotional resilience for Iran’s people. Heart4Iran’s staff regularly find themselves offering trauma support to Iranians who contact them. 

“The majority of the calls and the contacts [Heart4Iran received] even prior to war were trauma-related,” says Abnous. “Iranians are a traumatized nation because of living under oppression for the past 47 years, and that has increased after the latest oppositions and uprising.” 

Learn more at Heart4Iran’s website about how you can partner with them to reach Iranians with the hope of Jesus.

(Photo courtesy of Denis Oliveira/Heart4Iran)

 

Header photo of protest in Stockholm, Sweden, c. 2022 (Photo courtesy of Artin Bakhan via Unsplash)