Reza Pahlavi 'I can't sit and say nothing as Iran suffers' سخن رضا پهلوی ‏

Reza Pahlavi سخن رضا پهلوی با روحانیون وابسته به حکومت‏

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi in exile: 'I can't sit and say nothing as Iran suffers'
Crown Prince of Iran tells Simon Heffer he is ready to help bring change to his country but says the West needs to increase pressure on the Tehran regime.

By Simon Heffer
Published: 1:02PM GMT 07 Nov 2009

Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran, and to his most devoted followers His Imperial Majesty the Shah, has been following the turbulent events of his country closer than perhaps any exile in the past five or six months.

I met him this week in a hotel room in Washington DC, near where he lives. While we talked over mineral water and fish and chips he pulled out his BlackBerry to see the latest news of the street protests in Tehran.

The repression of his fellow Iranians by the Ahmadinejad regime, still in place after the rigged elections of the summer, angers him profoundly.

"When I think that today we Iranians have to be represented by these people, warmongering, terrorist-sponsoring, Holocaust denying can I possibly sit here and say nothing? I don't want anything in return. I do it because it is my duty," he says.

In exile since his father was deposed in 1979, the Prince, 49, remains the figurehead for the three or four million strong Iranian diaspora. Since the elections he has stepped up calls for civil disobedience by Iranians, and for external support for that. His many conduits of information from Iran tell him the regime is fragmenting, and he eagerly awaits a tipping point.

"The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, of military juntas in South America, of the former Soviet Union all of it came at the hands of the people of those nations themselves," he says. "None of this could have happened without foreign support but that is not the same as an occupying army that comes in and changes a regime I don't see how that can ever be legitimate."

The unhappy experience of foreign intervention in Iraq has further convinced him of the importance of avoiding it in Iran.

"Change must come to Iran by civil disobedience and non-violence. I stress that. We can't have change at any cost. It is ultimately a question of the sovereignty of that nation, and what happens must be the will of the people. But how do we determine that? There is an absence of public debate. There is an absence of the ballot box."

Helped by the internet, which he says has become "the most valuable tool" in co-ordinating support for the pro-democracy, pro-human rights Green Movement, he can monitor events at home almost as they happen. This immediacy seems to have energised him, and made him more impatient for change. "As we speak, the Iranian people are on the streets again, being clubbed by the militia, saying that they are disassociating themselves from the regime," he tells me.

Yet while he wants no armed intervention, he wants the Western powers, notably America, which has sought dialogue with the regime in Tehran, to be more directly supportive of the resurgent Iranian people and the opposition they are showing to Ahmadinejad.

"Today on the streets of Iran you hear cries of 'Obama, Obama, you're either with them or with us'. That is the people's message to the outside world. We are saying to Obama and other leaders 'We need your help'.

"If you want to have a dialogue with our regime, that's up to you, but isn't it time, after 30 years, that you opened up a dialogue with us? The Green Movement is saying, 'We want out'. It has a commitment to pluralism. They are people who say we have to respect and defend everyone's opinion.

"That is today's Iranian youth, very different to those 30 years ago who wanted a grand leader within a grand ideology. These are people who also see human rights as the cornerstone of everything they want to do, who want a democratic system of justice, and not a guy who says, 'As the only representative of God on Earth, I interpret the laws'."

The Prince interprets the demonstrations of the past few months often made violent by the Revolutionary Guard as enormously significant. "The ingredients for change have reached almost boiling point, despite the attempts of the regime to crack down. ...

He is far from sure that the West, notably America, is taking notice. "If they are holding up signs in English on the streets of Tehran it is not to practise their language skills, it is obviously meant for the outside world." The West should see, too, that the regime is factionalised and all camps "realise that this situation is no longer tenable. You can't keep clubbing people on the head and hope to get away with it".

Read the Rest @
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6519739/Crown-Princ...

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[normalistic1]

یاد بگیریم که حرف حق را بشنویم و تحمل کنیم.

[sullivanseven]

درود بر اين مرد شجاع

[MrCarlos26562]

@jessica5666 to ke tazizadeh va haromzadeh hasti esme khodet ro irani nagzar bi hameh chize arabzadeh kesafat

[MrCarlos26562]

@karl90638 khafeh sho to haromzadeh tazizadeh

[MrCarlos26562]

afarin be to ey shahzadeh be hagh iran pesare abar marde tarikhe iran zamin va pedare bar hagh iraniyan pars maslak nik andish javidan bad khandane pahlavi ke hamaknon tamame doniya be bavar amadand ke pedareman mohamad reza shah pahlavi ke bod va che kard az baraye iranian ba komake hamsarash farah aziz va madare geramiye tamame iranian payandeh bada khandane pahlavi .tiger

[Bestmanme08]

Google

"Ahmadinejad punished my Christian mother's rapist" and see his good work as mayor of Tehran!

[get5050]

besiar aali defa kardi az mardome irannnnnn .Sepasss!!

[get5050]

vase sep11,be che chize khob ieshareh kard . so smart

[karl90638]

Shut the hell up and stick to knitting...

[karl90638]

Jessica! Jessica!

You need to start seeing a new Psychiatrist hon!

:--)))

[jessica5666]

Hey asshole I'm Iranian.

you can't even think before you say shit,

You'd better go hang yourself!

[karl90638]

Please stick to hat you know!!Stay out of Iranian politics....Please!!