Iran’s Intelligence Ministry claims to have arrested a leader of an armed monarchist group inside Iran, though his family members deny he traveled there.

The Intelligence Ministry statement claims Jamshid Sharmahd was arrested in a “complex operation” inside Iran. Sharmahd is the leader of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, a California-based monarchist group that seeks to place Reza Pahlavi, the son of Mohammad Reza Pahvali, the last shah of Iran, on the throne. The group is often referred to as Tondar, which means thunder in Persian. 

Despite the group’s ambitions of restoring the monarchy, Pahlavi is not involved in the group’s activities. The group is allegedly responsible for the 2008 bombing of a Shiraz mosque in Fars province that killed 12 people and wounded 200. In 2010, two individuals, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were charged with being members of the group and were executed.

Iranian state television aired the confessions of a blindfolded Sharmahd shortly after his arrest. Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said Sharmahd received “serious support from American and Israeli intelligence.” Alavi also said Tondar is unlike other monarchist groups, which simply issued statements periodically, adding it is a “violent group.” The group’s website makes references to charges from Iran’s government but doesn’t deny them. The group did, however, refer to Sharmahd's arrest as an “abduction.”