Kingdom Assembly of Iran

Kingdom Assembly of Iran (Anjoman-e Pâdeshâhi-ye Irân), also The Monarchy Assembly Iran, Soldiers of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, Iran Monarchy Committee, or Tondar (تندر), is an Iranian exile monarchist opposition group based in Los Angeles, United States which seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic and restore the Iranian monarchy under a new dynasty. The group is currently banned in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tondar means 'thunder' in Persian. The Kingdom Assembly of Iran formerly ran a satellite television from London, named 'Your TV'. It stopped broadcasting in 2008. API then initiated radio and television broadcasts from Los Angeles named 'Radio Tondar'. Exact membership of the API remains unknown. In 2010, the group claimed "100,000 members in the U.S.", despite experts estimating it to have a size of a few hundred worldwide. The core ideology of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran is monarchism, which it on embraces more on organic, emotional and romantic elements rather than a political reasoning. In contrast to typical monarchists who glorify the Pahlavi dynasty, the group looks back more to pre-Islamic Persian Empire as a source of inspiration. The group is staunchly against Islam and characterizes it as "alien" and "violent". In a posting, the Kingdom Assembly of Iran blames fourteen hundreds of "shameful Islamic tradition" as the fundamental problem of Iran, instead of the Iranian government itself or its human rights abuses and economic condition. The group uses race and ethnicity as a main theme for its agenda, using the word Tāzī for Arab people and drawing a distinction line between Iranian/Persian and Islamic/Arabic identity. The group considers anyone associated with the Iranian government to be a "traitor", and makes no distinguish between the reformists and the conservatives. It showed no sympathy towards the Green Movement of Iran and disapproved its non-violent nature of protest and its "unpure" demands for democracy.