Showing posts with label Reza Pahlavi II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reza Pahlavi II. Show all posts
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Monday, January 04, 2010
HIM Reza Pahlavi II wants UN probe in Iran
AP Interview: Shah's Son Wants UN Probe in Iran
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 31, 2009
PARIS (AP) -- The son of the deposed shah of Iran urged nations worldwide on Thursday to withdraw their ambassadors from Tehran to protest a relentless government crackdown on opposition demonstrators that resulted in at least eight deaths this week alone.
Reza Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, also appealed in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for a U.N. investigation into human rights violations during the unrest.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pahlavi equated the climate of the unrest in his homeland with the ''revolutionary atmosphere'' that preceded the fall of his father from the Peacock Throne 30 years ago, when the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic republic. The difference, he said, is that this time the people know what they want -- a secular democracy.
Pahlavi, like other members of the exiled opposition to Iran's clerical regime, is looking to play a role from afar as protesters brashly defy authorities in an increasingly tumultuous Iran.
In the letter Pahlavi urged the U.N. chief to press Iran to release those arrested and act to ''halt the intolerable and increasingly dangerous march of events.'' The letter was given to the AP Thursday.
At least eight people died during protests Sunday, and hundreds were arrested in the worst unrest since the aftermath of June's disputed presidential election.
Pahlavi said that recalling ambassadors would be a ''minimal but clear indication'' by U.N. member states of their support for the rights of Iranian citizens and objections to violations of these rights by Iranian authorities.
''What you see in Iran is of major proportions,'' Pahlavi said by telephone. Based in the United States, the 49-year-old former crown prince is currently in Europe. His exact location was not divulged for security reasons.
''I can equate it with the same kind of climate that existed toward the end of 1978, 30 years ago, which led to a revolutionary atmosphere which I think has been reached right now in Iran,'' he said.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown Feb. 11, 1979. He fled Iran and wandered from country to country, ill with cancer and eventually died in Egypt in 1980. His son is based in Bethesda, Maryland, but often travels to France.
''The biggest difference is if yesterday the only focus was on bringing down the previous regime, while most people didn't quite know what it would end up like, this time people not only know what they don't want, which is the current regime, but they also know what they want,'' the shah's son said.
He said he believes the great majority want a secular democratic system to replace the clerical regime.
Pahlavi, like other exiled Iranian opposition figures, insists that the protest movement is not focused exclusively on leading figure Mir Hossein Mousavi or another top figure, Mahdi Karroubi.
Exiled groups, who themselves are unlikely to ever join forces, say they are in constant contact with well-placed sources inside Iran.
The head of the People's Mujahedeen Organization, Maryam Rajavi, said her group could rally behind Mousavi ''despite his past'' but only ''if he accepts distancing himself from the religious dictatorship.'' The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based army has been disarmed by U.S. soldiers. The group remains on the U.S. terrorist list.
''Change is under way in Iran. It will not stop until the regime has come to an end,'' Rajavi said by telephone.
The first president of the post-revolution Islamic Republic, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, also living in France, is less optimistic.
''From a stand point of legitimacy, it (the regime) is over .... But it has three means that are interwoven in order to make this regime last: oil revenues, the forces of repression, and fear.''
For Pahlavi, who calls for civil disobedience, the current strife is a ''culminating moment.''
He contended that, unlike the bloodbath that accompanied the fall of his father, a peaceful transition is possible with even some of the security apparatus ''part of the solution.''
He claimed some members of the security apparatus have on occasion shown restraint toward demonstrators and what he called cooperation by refusing to follow orders to move in. Foreign journalists in Tehran were restricted from covering protests, and news media abroad have relied in part on video and reports from Iranian citizens.
Now, he said, they need an ''exit strategy'' so they can refuse to cooperate with the regime and even join with those seeking change.
It is not known how much weight various exiled opposition forces have inside Iran and, in the case of Pahlavi, how many people support the idea of a return to monarchy. However, Pahlavi says that is not his goal.
''This is not about me. I'm not here to advocate anything but ... freedom and democracy for the Iranian people at first and I've determined this as my unique mission in life.''
Still, he acknowledged that ''I carry on my shoulders the historic weight of an institution that I may potentially represent.''
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 31, 2009
PARIS (AP) -- The son of the deposed shah of Iran urged nations worldwide on Thursday to withdraw their ambassadors from Tehran to protest a relentless government crackdown on opposition demonstrators that resulted in at least eight deaths this week alone.
Reza Pahlavi, who has lived in exile since his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution, also appealed in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for a U.N. investigation into human rights violations during the unrest.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pahlavi equated the climate of the unrest in his homeland with the ''revolutionary atmosphere'' that preceded the fall of his father from the Peacock Throne 30 years ago, when the monarchy was replaced by an Islamic republic. The difference, he said, is that this time the people know what they want -- a secular democracy.
Pahlavi, like other members of the exiled opposition to Iran's clerical regime, is looking to play a role from afar as protesters brashly defy authorities in an increasingly tumultuous Iran.
In the letter Pahlavi urged the U.N. chief to press Iran to release those arrested and act to ''halt the intolerable and increasingly dangerous march of events.'' The letter was given to the AP Thursday.
At least eight people died during protests Sunday, and hundreds were arrested in the worst unrest since the aftermath of June's disputed presidential election.
Pahlavi said that recalling ambassadors would be a ''minimal but clear indication'' by U.N. member states of their support for the rights of Iranian citizens and objections to violations of these rights by Iranian authorities.
''What you see in Iran is of major proportions,'' Pahlavi said by telephone. Based in the United States, the 49-year-old former crown prince is currently in Europe. His exact location was not divulged for security reasons.
''I can equate it with the same kind of climate that existed toward the end of 1978, 30 years ago, which led to a revolutionary atmosphere which I think has been reached right now in Iran,'' he said.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown Feb. 11, 1979. He fled Iran and wandered from country to country, ill with cancer and eventually died in Egypt in 1980. His son is based in Bethesda, Maryland, but often travels to France.
''The biggest difference is if yesterday the only focus was on bringing down the previous regime, while most people didn't quite know what it would end up like, this time people not only know what they don't want, which is the current regime, but they also know what they want,'' the shah's son said.
He said he believes the great majority want a secular democratic system to replace the clerical regime.
Pahlavi, like other exiled Iranian opposition figures, insists that the protest movement is not focused exclusively on leading figure Mir Hossein Mousavi or another top figure, Mahdi Karroubi.
Exiled groups, who themselves are unlikely to ever join forces, say they are in constant contact with well-placed sources inside Iran.
The head of the People's Mujahedeen Organization, Maryam Rajavi, said her group could rally behind Mousavi ''despite his past'' but only ''if he accepts distancing himself from the religious dictatorship.'' The Mujahedeen's Iraq-based army has been disarmed by U.S. soldiers. The group remains on the U.S. terrorist list.
''Change is under way in Iran. It will not stop until the regime has come to an end,'' Rajavi said by telephone.
The first president of the post-revolution Islamic Republic, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, also living in France, is less optimistic.
''From a stand point of legitimacy, it (the regime) is over .... But it has three means that are interwoven in order to make this regime last: oil revenues, the forces of repression, and fear.''
For Pahlavi, who calls for civil disobedience, the current strife is a ''culminating moment.''
He contended that, unlike the bloodbath that accompanied the fall of his father, a peaceful transition is possible with even some of the security apparatus ''part of the solution.''
He claimed some members of the security apparatus have on occasion shown restraint toward demonstrators and what he called cooperation by refusing to follow orders to move in. Foreign journalists in Tehran were restricted from covering protests, and news media abroad have relied in part on video and reports from Iranian citizens.
Now, he said, they need an ''exit strategy'' so they can refuse to cooperate with the regime and even join with those seeking change.
It is not known how much weight various exiled opposition forces have inside Iran and, in the case of Pahlavi, how many people support the idea of a return to monarchy. However, Pahlavi says that is not his goal.
''This is not about me. I'm not here to advocate anything but ... freedom and democracy for the Iranian people at first and I've determined this as my unique mission in life.''
Still, he acknowledged that ''I carry on my shoulders the historic weight of an institution that I may potentially represent.''
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The clever way to impose sanctions on Iran
Supporting the people is the best route to blocking Iran's Bomb, says Reza Pahlavi.
By Reza Pahlavi
Published: 7:02AM BST 30 Sep 2009
Tomorrow, the five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (known as the P5+1), will sit down with Iran in the latest attempt to ease increasing global anxiety over the country's nuclear programme. The threat of new sanctions hangs in the air. We have been here before: deadline after deadline, sanction after sanction, we return to the same old dance, the only real difference being that the Islamic Republic is inching ever closer to the Bomb. So perhaps now is the time to try something new. In anticipation of the October 1 meeting, the P5+1 must embrace their greatest ally in the war on nuclear proliferation: the people of Iran.
Until now, the Islamic Republic has not responded to external pressure from the international community. No amount of sanctions has worked. Instead, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad soaks up every opportunity to perform on the world stage, entertaining his audience of cool and collected clerics. But those clerics were not so composed on that June day when hundreds of thousands of Iranian people poured on to the streets, demanding an end to fundamentalist tyranny and the regime's oppression of their human rights.
In stark contrast to its reaction to international pressure, the regime's response to the internal uprising was immediate. Quivering with fear, it instantly detained more than 4,000 of its own people, suffocating their roaring cries for freedom and democracy. Students and journalists, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, young and old are still being held, clubbed, raped and tortured by the Islamic clerical regime. Hundreds of others stand falsely accused, helplessly awaiting trial without rights or representation.
Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urged the UN to appoint a special human rights envoy during last week's meeting of the General Assembly to investigate the Iranian government's egregious record of abuse. And still, suffering under a brutal regime that threatens their very right to life, the Iranian people continue to plead for their liberties, fight for their freedoms and scream for the world's support.
The clerics' fearful and nervous response to the people's uprising demonstrated that the biggest threat to their survival in power comes from within their own borders. Contrary to the state-run press and propaganda, the regime's biggest enemy is not the West; it is its own people.
By supporting the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights, by elevating the importance of their liberties, the West will find its greatest ally on the nuclear issue. Empowering the opposition movement will encourage and prolong internal dissent, and sustaining that internal unrest is the key to cracking the clerical code.
While sanctions can in fact prove to be a useful tool in the shed of diplomacy, they result in the suffering of a nation's citizens, victimising the innocent many for the sins of the stubborn few. For sanctions to truly be effective in Iran, human rights have to be put on equal footing with the nuclear concern. Many of my Iranian compatriots have indicated to me that they would be willing to add to their hardships in the short term only if they believe that sanctions will curtail the lifespan of clerical oppression and cure their want of human rights.
In 1986, the United States led a worldwide campaign for human rights and equality in South Africa when it passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, banning US investment in the country. Disinvestment sanctions were about civil rights and human rights, and other world powers quickly followed suit. Most importantly, the removal of apartheid laws and the release of political prisoners were necessary preconditions to the lifting of sanctions. Those sanctions worked. The South African people suffered a deep recession in the short term, but to this day, no South African has forgotten the importance of those preconditions and the long-term liberation they brought to them as a people.
In the case of Iran, US foreign policy and international pressure are reaching their limit. External sanctions that are imposed solely to shape Iran's nuclear policy are unlikely to ever decrease the number of centrifuges that enrich uranium. Furthermore, if the issue of enrichment continues to trump the moral fight for the most basic human liberties – namely the right to free and fair elections and the freedom of speech – then the P5+1 will be seen to have abandoned the Iranian people to their plight. Alternatively, if the West enforces new sanctions that are intrinsically tied to the national outcry for freedom, they have armed their greatest ally with the powerful weapon of international solidarity in the struggle against the Islamic regime. This uprising can change the entire fabric of stability in the Middle East.
So, while the world toils over yellowcake, the people of Iran still believe in their green movement for freedom, hope and human rights. It is time for international leaders to stand behind the human rights of the Iranian people. In so doing, they will entrust the Iranian people with the power to resolve the nuclear issue.
The writer is Crown Prince of Iran
By Reza Pahlavi
Published: 7:02AM BST 30 Sep 2009
Tomorrow, the five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (known as the P5+1), will sit down with Iran in the latest attempt to ease increasing global anxiety over the country's nuclear programme. The threat of new sanctions hangs in the air. We have been here before: deadline after deadline, sanction after sanction, we return to the same old dance, the only real difference being that the Islamic Republic is inching ever closer to the Bomb. So perhaps now is the time to try something new. In anticipation of the October 1 meeting, the P5+1 must embrace their greatest ally in the war on nuclear proliferation: the people of Iran.
Until now, the Islamic Republic has not responded to external pressure from the international community. No amount of sanctions has worked. Instead, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad soaks up every opportunity to perform on the world stage, entertaining his audience of cool and collected clerics. But those clerics were not so composed on that June day when hundreds of thousands of Iranian people poured on to the streets, demanding an end to fundamentalist tyranny and the regime's oppression of their human rights.
In stark contrast to its reaction to international pressure, the regime's response to the internal uprising was immediate. Quivering with fear, it instantly detained more than 4,000 of its own people, suffocating their roaring cries for freedom and democracy. Students and journalists, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, young and old are still being held, clubbed, raped and tortured by the Islamic clerical regime. Hundreds of others stand falsely accused, helplessly awaiting trial without rights or representation.
Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urged the UN to appoint a special human rights envoy during last week's meeting of the General Assembly to investigate the Iranian government's egregious record of abuse. And still, suffering under a brutal regime that threatens their very right to life, the Iranian people continue to plead for their liberties, fight for their freedoms and scream for the world's support.
The clerics' fearful and nervous response to the people's uprising demonstrated that the biggest threat to their survival in power comes from within their own borders. Contrary to the state-run press and propaganda, the regime's biggest enemy is not the West; it is its own people.
By supporting the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights, by elevating the importance of their liberties, the West will find its greatest ally on the nuclear issue. Empowering the opposition movement will encourage and prolong internal dissent, and sustaining that internal unrest is the key to cracking the clerical code.
While sanctions can in fact prove to be a useful tool in the shed of diplomacy, they result in the suffering of a nation's citizens, victimising the innocent many for the sins of the stubborn few. For sanctions to truly be effective in Iran, human rights have to be put on equal footing with the nuclear concern. Many of my Iranian compatriots have indicated to me that they would be willing to add to their hardships in the short term only if they believe that sanctions will curtail the lifespan of clerical oppression and cure their want of human rights.
In 1986, the United States led a worldwide campaign for human rights and equality in South Africa when it passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, banning US investment in the country. Disinvestment sanctions were about civil rights and human rights, and other world powers quickly followed suit. Most importantly, the removal of apartheid laws and the release of political prisoners were necessary preconditions to the lifting of sanctions. Those sanctions worked. The South African people suffered a deep recession in the short term, but to this day, no South African has forgotten the importance of those preconditions and the long-term liberation they brought to them as a people.
In the case of Iran, US foreign policy and international pressure are reaching their limit. External sanctions that are imposed solely to shape Iran's nuclear policy are unlikely to ever decrease the number of centrifuges that enrich uranium. Furthermore, if the issue of enrichment continues to trump the moral fight for the most basic human liberties – namely the right to free and fair elections and the freedom of speech – then the P5+1 will be seen to have abandoned the Iranian people to their plight. Alternatively, if the West enforces new sanctions that are intrinsically tied to the national outcry for freedom, they have armed their greatest ally with the powerful weapon of international solidarity in the struggle against the Islamic regime. This uprising can change the entire fabric of stability in the Middle East.
So, while the world toils over yellowcake, the people of Iran still believe in their green movement for freedom, hope and human rights. It is time for international leaders to stand behind the human rights of the Iranian people. In so doing, they will entrust the Iranian people with the power to resolve the nuclear issue.
The writer is Crown Prince of Iran
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