It does not claim to be a government in waiting, or a new political party. “We cannot claim from exile to return after 47 years and run a country which is by and large foreign to those that have not been there for 50 years,” said Youssefiani, who until 2018 was an adviser to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah. “The patronage or help must come to those inside Iran who are capable of moving the needle.”

He said the group had a “responsibility to break out of the classic pitfalls of exile politics by creating a pluralist movement to help the democratic forces inside the country”.

The bloody crackdown on anti-regime protests at the start of this year was the catalyst for many of its now members. “After the shock of thousands [being] slaughtered in January … the moment came when we said: ‘Enough is enough,’” Youssefiani said. “At the time the threat of war was looming. We just saw our boys and girls killed and we equally share the blame, or the shame of this. For too long there was a lack of imagination, there was only classic exile politics, an inability to get along. It was a terrible failure.”

“Arms will not bring democratic change, as we have seen, and we worry about what is the end goal of the war,” said Youssefian. “No one has defined what is peace, and this is where our problem is. Personally I am enormously concerned by the war, since the outcome was not thought through. There were those that thought they could chop off the head of the snake, and all would fall into place, but that misunderstands Iran.”

Will the regime crumble if the pressure continues? “The difficulty in Iran today is that those who own and control the guns also own and control the butter,” said Youssefian. “The IRGC own and control billion-dollar enterprises. If there is a defeat, these people are not going to go to Paris or London. Their wealth, power and assets and their ideology is deeply rooted in Iran’s ground.”