Reza Pahlavi:'I can't sit and say nothing as Iran suffers'
telegraph.co.uk / Simon Heffer
07-Nov-2009 (5 comments)

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.

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hamfekr

To be or, not to be

by hamfekr on Sat Nov 07, 2009 07:21 PM PST

There will never be a genuine international support for him. The Brits will never support him. Democrats don't take him seriously; neocons,despite tremendous pressure by the pro Israel lobbyists, are still licking their post-Chalabi wound; and above all he has failed to demonstrate any leadership quality to anyone anywhere, anyway.

Security of world oil supply is too vital a factor to be taken lightly.  


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benross

Is he ready to be Shah?

by benross on Sat Nov 07, 2009 06:37 PM PST

Is he ready to be Shah? "I've never been concerned about what role I play in the future. I have a unique mission today: I volunteer to lead my compatriots to the point where they can go to the polls and decide for themselves. That day is my finish line. After that, if you want me to be part of it, you tell me. If you don't, so be it."

It may sound calculated but it's not. Particularly when there is nothing specified about what will be the options at the polls, who would conduct the polls, and what is his role in all this?

This, plus call for sanctions, is a recipe for disaster. Sanctions should have a fast political outcome otherwise the lower class will be crippled. Reza Pahlavi is in no position to ensure a fast political outcome. He has not called for a political organization to engage in getting support from the mass. He has not offered any alternative (albeit temporary until the constituent assembly) the choices at the polls are unknown and whatever organized support he already has inside Iran is no match to the lack of political discourse in the society at large and the absence of well defined political choices. Sanctions in such situation will not lead to anything but chaos. I'm not against sanctions in principal, but before calling for sanctions, we should rise up to the situation. He didn't do that yet and I hope he doesn't think that the lack of a popular organization can be substituted by a given international support for him, as a famous person. 


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Ahura

Level with People

by Ahura on Sat Nov 07, 2009 06:34 PM PST

Sorry, inheritance not inherence.


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Ahura

Level with People

by Ahura on Sat Nov 07, 2009 06:29 PM PST

Come clean with Iranian people and make your inherence a public record. This is the least that you can do.


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Bavafa

Well, then just stand up

by Bavafa on Sat Nov 07, 2009 05:37 PM PST

Iranians would be in a better shape just as long as you don't say any thing

Mehrdad


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