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 The way to ending the tyranny of the ayatollahs in Iran is through peace. That was the message Tuesday evening by Reza Pahlavi II to about 345 local businesses and civic leaders, including many from Orange County's large Iranian-American community, attending a meeting of the Orange County World Affairs Council at the Fairmont Newport Beach. His father, the Shah of Iran, ruled that country for 37 years, until going into exile after the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime in 1979. The son went into exile at the same time and, upon his father's death in 1980, himself became the shah in exile. The son also is a graduate of USC.

He attacked the "clerical regime," as he called it, for repressing human rights. He also said that, despite the country's vast oil wealth, "The Iranian people are losing a standard of living that was the envy of many in the world."

He briefly mentioned criticism of his father's human rights record, which was abysmal. But he criticized the media's "30 years of silence of this regime," under which "torture and public executions are commonplace" and "more are on death row than ever before." And he attacked the Iran regime's export of terrorism, such as its support of Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and the regime's nuclear weapons program.

But the solution is not for the United States to bomb Iran, he ... >>>