Iranian Alert -- February 10, 2004 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD --Americans for Regime Change in Iran

The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, “this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year.” But most American’s are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. Starting June 10th of this year, Iranians have begun taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy. Many even want the US to over throw their government.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

Iran Urged to Stop Harassing Journalists

February 09, 2004
Reporters Without Borders
RSF

Reporters Without Borders is concerned at an upsurge in harassment and obstruction of journalists since the 11 January ruling barring huge numbers of reformist candidates from contesting 20 February parliamentary elections.

The international press freedom organisation has called on the authorities in the Islamic Republic to allow journalists to freely report on the political crisis currently shaking the country. Reporters Without Borders also urged the authorities to grant visas to all foreign journalists who apply for them.

Eight reformist dailies - Yas-e no, Sharq, Nassim-e Sabah, Tosseh, Aftab-e Yazd, E'temad, Hambastegi, et Mardomsalari - were threatened by the legal authorities in the week of 29 January for their coverage of the sit-in by reformist deputies in front of the parliament.

Prosecutor Said Mortazavi has called on the Ministry for Culture and Islamic Orientation to issue a warning to these newspapers accusing them of "sowing discord". The prosecutor went even further on 8 February with the threat, "Any newspaper carrying articles about the election boycott will be immediately closed down."

Five journalists have also been officially summoned by the Justice Ministry :

- Shadi Sadr, journalist at Yas-e no and publisher of the site www.womeniran.com is due to appear shortly before a court in Qazvin to respond to a complaint from the prosecutor's office.

- Abdollah Nasseri, head of the official IRNA news agency, was summoned by Section 1083 of the Teheran court to respond to complaints from the prosecutor's office linked to his coverage of the political crisis.

- Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, editor-in-chief of several major banned reformist newspapers, was summoned on 28 January by the 6th section of the Teheran court over his articles on the parliamentary crisis.

- Abdolrassul Vessal, publisher of the daily Iran, was summoned by the 6th section of Teheran court over its report on the government spokesman's speech during the reformist deputies' sit-in at parliament. He is accused of "publishing false news".

- Rassul Montakhabnia, reformist deputy and journalist, was summoned by the Clergy Court over a highly critical article about a speech by the Guide of the Islamic Republic about the press in Iran.

Throughout the country and particularly in provincial cities, journalists have confirmed to Reporters Without Borders that they have received phone threats over articles about the political crisis. Courts have summoned some newspaper bosses this week on the basis of complaints laid many months or even years earlier.

Finally, several media have been shut down :

- The weekly Hadith-e Kerman, in Kerman province was closed on 7 February for coverage last year of serial killings committed by armed militia.

- Another weekly in Khorrassan province, No Andish, was suspended for one year on 4 February on the order of the 7th appeal court in Mashhad, on the basis of a complaint from the prosecutor's office. The editor-in-chief, the publisher and a journalist were fined five million rials (about 500 euros at the official rate) and another journalist was fined 1 million de rials (about 100 euros).

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9204

ConocoPhillips Pressured to End Iran, Syria Work

Reuters - World News (via Yahoo)
Feb 10, 2004

NEW YORK - ConocoPhillips, the No. 3 U.S. oil company, is ending its operations in Syria and Iran after a New York City official asked the company to examine its ties with countries that "promote terrorism."

New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. on Tuesday released a letter from the Houston-based company which said it had agreed not to "approve business ventures in sensitive countries unless it is convinced that it can do so legally and within the spirit of U.S. law."

Thompson last year made a proposal on behalf of the New York City Police and Fire Department Pension Funds -- which have $34.8 million invested in ConocoPhillips -- that the company ensure oversight of operations in Iran and Syria.

ConocoPhillips has now ended its business connections with Iran and said a contract for a partial stake in a gas-processing facility in Syria could end as early as next year, Thompson said in a statement.

The agreement also extends to the company's domestic and foreign subsidiaries.

New York City's five pension funds, overseen by Thompson, have more than $164 million invested in ConocoPhillips. The story was first reported in amNewYork, a daily newspaper in New York City.

ConocoPhillips was not immediately available for comment.

"I hope that these decisions will encourage other companies to thoroughly examine their relationships with rogue nations, and any ties that can promote terrorism," Thompson said.

"Over the next few months, my office will expand the scope of our efforts and increase pressure to ensure responsible relationships," he added.

Thompson has also asked General Electric Co. and oil field services company Halliburton to end their operations in countries that sponsor terror.

However, he expressed "displeasure" that neither of those companies have taken measures similar to ConocoPhillips.

He recently submitted a renewed shareholder proposal calling on Halliburton to review its operations in Iran. Halliburton in February 2000 opened an office in Iran through a Cayman Islands unit, Halliburton Products and Services Ltd.

Thompson expects to submit another shareholder resolution with GE later this year.

http://www.daneshjoo.org/generalnews/article/publish/article_4845.shtml

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0211/p01s04-wome.html

Iran's revolution at 25: out of gas

Wednesday's silver anniversary marks a peak of political disillusionment.

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

TEHRAN, IRAN – Even flying into Tehran at night shows how Iran is ready to celebrate Wednesday - in unprecedented magnitude - the 25th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
But the endless strings of bright lights and buildings aglow with the red, green, and white national colors celebrate a political vigor and hope that have now largely faded from Iran.

In 1979, the triumphant toppling of the reviled, US-supported shah changed the face of the Middle East, inspired Islamic militants around the world, and led to humiliation for American diplomats taken hostage for 444 days.

Today, instead of reveling in the Islamic justice and democracy once promised by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranians are racked with doubts. They question clerical rule, doubt the compatibility of Islam and democracy, and are disillusioned by unmet expectations.

"Behind closed doors, even the clergy is debating velayat-e-faqih [divine rule by clerics] and secularism, and their role in political power," says a Western diplomat. "They are asking: 'Is it so wise that we are running the state, that we are doing things against the will of the people, which is against Islam?' "

Many of the two-thirds of Iran's population who are under 30 - and have little more memory of the revolution than dire warnings from elders that the bloody upheaval must never be repeated - view Wednesday's silver jubilee with apathy.

The crisis between reformers and conservatives continued Tuesday, when the hard-line Guardian Council (a 12-man unelected body) released its official list for the Feb. 20 parliamentary vote - and confirmed the rejection of more than 2,000 candidates as "unfit" to stand.

Analysts say the conservative clerics are trying to retake control of the 290-seat parliament, which they lost to reformers in 2000. The hard-liners calculated that the rejection of candidates would draw only minor protest from a public that has grown disillusioned after seven years of failed democratic reform. They were right.

"After 25 years, we are at the end of attempts to legally reform the system, and there are real fears and worries," says a former revolutionary, whose skepticism is widely echoed.

Wednesday's celebrations are "nice to remind ourselves that we came from that very bloody fighting [of the revolution]," says the analyst, who asked not to be named. "But this is part of a dead end: If you don't want another revolution, and legal reform doesn't work, there is nothing left but a miracle."

In the early years of the revolution, Iran tried to forge a modern Islamic state after decades of repressive and undemocratic rule under Shah Reza Pahlavi, the last emperor during 2,500 years of Persian monarchy.

Ayatollah Khomeini himself warned against handing political power to clerics, and banned them from running in the first two post-revolution presidential races. But in the Shiite branch of Islam - to which nearly all Iranians adhere - political and religious rule has always been entwined.

It was the charismatic Khomeini who determined that final say in all matters should rest with the position of Velayat-e-faqih, the Guardian Theologian seen among Iranian believers as God's deputy on earth. Khomeini assumed that position. Since his death in 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has filled the role.

"To supervise the state is Shia tradition, but to run the state itself is different, and was new with Khomeini," says the Western diplomat.

In recent years, the most radical reformers - including some senior dissident ayatollahs - have questioned the infallibility of the Supreme Leader, and have paid the price with house arrest and jail time. But they also cite his words as justifying for their efforts.

"The most important factor in distributing political power is the vote of the people - that is Khomeini's famous standard," says Morad Veisi, editor of the reformist Yas-e-No newspaper. "Those who don't believe in the people's vote are not correct in the theocratic system."

Reform-minded President Mohamad Khatami has warned that Iran is veering towards religious despotism and "dictatorship," though he also supports the Islamic system. Contrary to Iran's constitution, many other reformers are shifting toward a far more secular view - one likely reason many were disqualified from the upcoming vote.

Reformers have been left with little recourse. The main reform party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, lead by the president's own brother, has declared that it will boycott the Feb. 20 vote - a move that will almost certainly hand control of parliament to conservatives. But the president's smaller League of Combatant Clerics party told Reuters Tuesday that it will participate in the elections.

If voter turnout is less than 35 percent nationwide, conservatives will "have a real problem, because it will be clear that people are abandoning the system, and the legitimacy question will come into play," adds the diplomat. "It already exists in people's minds, but it will be on the table."

SCORES of reform newspapers have been shut down in recent years. Dozens of political prisoners languish in jail - some for simply publishing the results of an opinion poll that showed a majority of Iranians wanted to reestablish ties with the US.

But those who played roles in the first revolution say this second quest for change - under way far more quietly at the moment - has so far cost little.

"In the revolution, the price was so high: people died, not only in the revolution, but in the war with Iraq afterwards," which was cast as a "sacred" holy war by the ayatollahs, says Hamid Reza Jalaiepour, a political sociologist at Tehran University, and former editor of a number of closed reformist newspapers.

"The price so far today has been low," Mr. Jalaiepour says ticking them off: "Four intellectuals killed, [a chief reform strategist] wounded in an assassination attempt; 400 activists in prison; 4,000 students arrested and released.

"In terms of political structure, [reformists] couldn't pass a bill, or change anything," adds the editor. "But if you look at achievements in society, it is so high. When reformists won the presidency and majlis [the parliament], many avenues opened up."

The conservatives paid a high price, too, Jalaiepour says, "because their activity has made Iran become part of the 'axis of evil.' The US and other Western countries will not sit down with them. It's why they are so angry: They have no credibility among the people."

That credibility is perhaps lowest among Iranian students, who these days dole out almost equal opprobrium toward the failed reform camp. Student protests led to clashes with pro-regime militias and vigilante groups in July 1999. Further clashes shook parts of Tehran last June. Requests in recent weeks to stage protests against conservative control of the democratic process were refused.

"For years, they tried to push the religious stuff down [students'] throats, and it caused a reaction," says the revolutionary, noting a recent poll that reportedly found 45 percent had negative feelings toward religion. "Twenty years ago, is that reaction the leaders of Iran wanted? They wanted to train soldiers for Islam, and got exactly the opposite."

Even some senior clerics have been disturbed by political restrictions.

"Islam is the religion of peace, of rights, of justice, not tyranny, violence and prisons - let alone terrorism and killing people and torture in prisons, even if this torture is putting them in solitary confinement," said reformist Grand Ayatollah Yusef Saanei, in a recent interview.

"All of these things are against Islam," says Mr. Saanei, one of only a handful of grand ayatollahs in Shiite Islam. "In one word: What you would like for yourself, you must do for others. These are all the human rights and freedoms, which the Prophet calls justice."

Instead, vigilante groups still break up political meetings, and some human rights legislation is tied up by hard-liners, Saanei says: "I don't think Iran can be presented as an Islamic example."

That assessment is far from the vision ofa quarter century ago. The aim then was to "export the revolution," and for Iran to be a beacon for all Muslims.

"We thought we would get rid of the US, get a new government with a good leader, and all our problems would be over," says the former revolutionary. "Only in the last decade we began to think of what we missed - human rights, democracy. I wish I could blame the mullahs, but it's a much deeper problem all of us Iranians share."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3471841.stm

Fresh Iranian bands ready to rock
By Miranda Eeles
BBC, Tehran

Iranian music fans are beginning to access a variety of styles

Rock, rap and reggae are not the first things that spring to mind when you think of music in Iran.

But groups playing all three genres have entered a competition aimed at introducing new talent in the Islamic Republic.

The competition has been organised by tehranavenue.com, a Tehran- based website which is run entirely by young, enthusiastic and talented volunteers.

The offices of tehranavenue.com have been busy for months.

It is not an easy task organising a music competition over the net.

And when you live and work in the Islamic Republic of Iran, there are certain limitations, either subconscious or explicit, on forms of self-expression.

Subjects such as censorship, quality, and who should be the judge turned many meetings into lengthy discussions.

Alternative

The competition - called Tehran Avenue Music Open - attracted hundreds of emails from interested bands.

The website eventually accepted 42 tracks. "Some of the tracks are really professional, said Soheyl Shahsavari, one of the organisers.

"For example Motogen from France.

"The style is reggae, the singer is Iranian, the rest are French.

"It's a great track."

Most of the bands are from Iran, but there are also entries from Sweden, France and Canada - all with an Iranian connection.

"Some are good, but others still have a long way to go to improve," said Shadi Vatanparast, one of the website's key members.

"An interesting point about this year's participants is that there are all kinds of genres.

"Last year it was only rock but now we have alternative rock, progressive rock, pop rock.

"This variety makes the competition more attractive."

Restrictions eased

The web-based music competition is not just a sign of slightly looser times in Iran.

It also reveals how innovative and adept Iranian youth can be when it comes to modern technology.

They have taken advantage of a medium - the internet - which by its very nature is less controllable, and turned it into a means of self-expression.

The site is one of the only ways young aspiring musicians can get their music heard by the public.

After the Revolution in 1979 only traditional music bands could perform.

When reformist President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997, restrictions on live performances were eased.

Soon the first Iranian pop bands started to appear on the scene.

However, concerts are few and far between and remain strictly controlled.

Fans have to stay seated - dancing, even moving energetically in your seat - is forbidden.

Although it's obviously a kind of rock music, there's an Iranian tinge to it and that's different

Bahram Bahrami, music fan

The alternative rock group "127" was recently given permission to play at Tehran's art university.

It is one of the few places where live performances are allowed for groups such as theirs.

"Four years ago we could never play here", said lead singer Sohrab Mohebbi.

"It was impossible to do such a thing but now we're getting a chance to play so maybe in a couple of years we can play more in different places, not just in universities."

The audience clearly loved the performance, particularly when guest musicians playing traditional Persian instruments came to join them on stage.

"The better part of it is that as you listen, although there it is obviously a kind of rock music, at the same time you can hear the Iranian tinge to it and that's different," said Bahram Bahrami, a medical student.

Underdeveloped

One of the main problems facing rock musicians in Iran is the fact that the audience is unaccustomed to new genres.

Most live music in Iran is still of the traditional variety and concerts where well-known musicians play classical instruments like the daf, the setar and the nay sell out well in advance.

Producers then are reluctant to support underdeveloped genres for Iranian musicians like rock, rap and reggae.

"127" hope restrictions on where they can perform will be relaxed

Babak Chamanara runs the Beethoven music store in Tehran.

He says it is still tough to find Iranian producers who are used to hearing anything but traditional music or the standard pop fare that comes from exiled musicians in Los Angeles.

"The problem is that non-traditional and non-pop music sounds a bit strange to music industry people, including concert holders, album makers, technical crews and marketing companies", said Chamanara.

"This is a market problem, they see that this genre does not sell, therefore they do not invest in it or make advertisements for it."

Which is why a music competition like the one at tehranavenue.com can help the development of alternative music in Iran.

It not only gives bands a chance to work on their sound, it also gives more Iranians a chance to listen to music, even if they have to do it online.

Reza Pahlavi's Opening Statement at the French - American Press Club in Paris

February 10, 2004
Reza Pahlavi Secretariat
rezapahlavi.org/

A quarter century ago, a disease from the middle ages took over my country. Its symptoms were fear of freedom and a fanatical zeal to reverse the march of civilization. With strange mutations, the disease spread as far as North Africa and the Far East, creating a brotherhood of terror which is the greatest threat to international security today.

The strategic vacuum created by the Islamic Revolution in Iran drew the Soviets into Afghanistan the following year. To counter them, the West organized and trained the killers we now know as the Taliban. Similarly the Iran-Iraq war brought the West to Saddam's support, fueling ambitions responsible for the current predicament. Iran itself became a convention center for the terrorist industry, a meeting place for those who fund, organize, lend logistic and scientific support, plan events and coordinate strategies against the free world. Add up all of that cost - This is a problem that must be solved!

All cure starts with a good diagnosis. It is critical not to mistake so-called reforms and elections as a cure for the Islamic Republic. Even perfect elections are meaningless for a Parliament that does not have the right to make laws. This is a theocracy; remember… where daring to think free and decide your future is seen as the arrogance of the infidel. The obligation of the faithful is obedience to those who reveal the law of God, those around the "Faghih," the Supreme Leader.

This may all sound gloomy, but actually, today I came here to bring you positive news. My compatriots, particularly the young generation, have found the antidote to fanaticism in their passion to join the free world. For you see, while the governments the world over were struggling against fanatical terrorists, in Iran these were the government. Having suffered the most, it is no surprise that it is Iranians who are now rising to stamp out the epicenter of the disease.

Physically, it may be the regime that separates Iranians from the world and from each other. Politically, however, it is the people who are isolating the regime, cutting off support and sapping its authority. Indeed, it is striking the extent to which this regime has lost authority, not just vis-à-vis the people, but within the regime and with respect to the organs of the government itself.

This is what gives us confidence. This is why I spend my every moment leading an effort to bring together political movements in Iran, from different persuasions and walks of life, for the coordinated action required to force this regime to crumble. My compatriots' hope and energy allows me to guarantee to you today that Iranians will soon tear down the black wall of the Islamic Republic, join the free world, and demonstrate that, given the opportunity, all men prefer the light of enlightenment to the darkness of fanaticism.

Marxism faded when the wall came down and people saw the reality behind it. Religious intolerance too will lose its virulence as the Islamic Republic of Iran crumbles. Civilized nations will no longer have to fight each other over how to defeat terror. Free of fear, a world without barricades will create a better life for all of its citizens.

This is our collective future. We will get there - later, if the free world lends the regime credibility, sooner, if it supports the people in establishing a new order based on popular sovereignty and fundamental human rights.

http://www.rezapahlavi.org/fapc21004.html

THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC IS A "CENTRE FOR TERRORIST INDUSTRY":

REZA PAHLAVI

By Safa Haeri

PARIS, 10 Feb. (IPS) Iran, under the rule of the ayatollahs, has become a "convention centre for terrorist industry" and the Islamic Republic has created a "brotherhood of terror which is the greatest threat to international peace and security", according to Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi.

"The strategic vacuum created by the Islamic Revolution in Iran drew the Soviets into Afghanistan the following year. To counter them, the West organized and trained the killers we now know as trhe Taleban. Similarly the Iran-Iraq War brought the West to Saddam’s support, fueling ambitions responsible for the current predicament. Iran itself became a convention center for terrorist industry, a meeting place for those who fund, organize, lend logistic and scientific support, plan events and coordinate strategies against the free world. Add up all of the cost. This is a problem that must be solved", he said during a press conference held on Tuesday at the Foreign Press Centre in Paris.

Speaking on Tuesday to a packed audience of journalists, Mr. Pahlavi reiterated that he had no other mission than to help Iranians organize a national and free referendum on the future regime of Iran and recommended "civil disobedience" to achieve this goal "peacefully", reminding that the method that started in India yielded "positive results" in South Africa, some Latin nations as well as in the former Soviet Union satellites like Poland, Czechoslovakia or Serbia.

"It is noteworthy that the idea of national referendum – that he suggested more than two years ago -- has become the leitmotiv of the majority of Iranians opposed to the regime, among them and foremost the students ", he gladly observed, calling on all Iranians of all walks and political ideologies opposed to the Islamic Republic to unite together in achieving this goal.

"We are all in the same boat and we have to row in unison. In the past 25 years, we never had such a golden chance. It is up to all of us to take it and the international community will also help", he went on.

In Paris to launch the French translation of his new book entitled "For Iran"*, a 248 pages of interview with Mr. Ahmad Ahraar, one of Iran’s most respected journalist and commentator reckoned also by all critics as one of the most serious analyst of Iranian affairs, Mr. Pahlavi also cautioned the Western world against sending "confusing signals" that Iranians translates as support for the present theocracy.

"If you are really for democracy, human rights and freedom in Iran, meeting and talking with the powerless president (Mohammad) Khatami about the so-called dialogue of civilizations is not the best way", he said, referring to the just concluded trip to Iran by Prince Charles of England and his talks with Mr. Khatami.

Expressing his "confidence" to see the Islamic Republic "crumble" as did the Soviet Union, he told his fellow Iranians: "We also would be free. Later if the free world lends this regime credibility, sooner if it supports the people in establishing a new order based on the sovereignty of the people and fundamental human rights", he added.

"You have to choose between the 90 per cent of the Iranians which reject this regime and the 10 per cent that cling to power for their own personal interests. But don’t forget that the day the Iranians free themselves from this regime, they would remember the governments that turned their back to them during the hard years they suffered", he said, increasing visibly the tone of his criticism against the European Union.

To those in the West, officials, analysts or journalists, who see in the present cacophony over the elections signs of democracy, the son of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was toppled by the Islamic Revolution in January 1979 said "it is critical not to mistake the so-called reforms and elections as "a cure" for the Islamic Republic.

"Even perfect elections are meaningless for a parliament that does not have the right to make laws. This is a theocracy where daring to think free and decide your future is seen as the arrogance of the infidel. The obligation of the faithful is full obedience to those who reveal the law of god, those around the Faqih, or the Supreme Leader. This is not election, but a masquerade of selection", he noted.

Asked about plans by Washington to also attack Iran, Prince Reza observed immediately that the situation in Iran was "totally different" from those that prevailed in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq. "In Iran, you have a sold administration with experienced cadre, a people that despite repressions expresses its demands, dissidents that despite crackdowns challenge the regime, a lively society that oppose the system that wants keep isolated from the world that the Iranians, particularly the younger generation, want to join", he said.

To a question about Tehran backing the Iraqi Shi’ite for an Islamic Republic similar to the one ruling Iran, Mr. Pahlavi observed that in the struggle between the "hauzeh" (religious circle) of Qom where religion "has been nationalized" and is crumbling fast in the one hand and that of Najaf in Iraq that has "recovered its freedom and increases its influence" the Islamic Republic would let "no one stone unturned to spread trouble".

However he expressed optimism as to the Middle East crisis, seeing peace coming back to the region after the resent Iranian theocracy changes into a free, secular, democratic regime based on a parliamentary system, "a nation then that would play the key role in maintaining stability for the whole of area".

To a question about the future regime he recommends for Iran, Prince Reza said that was not his concern. "What I’m interested and all my efforts are turned and concentrated is to achieve the referendum. The form of the future regime would be and must be decided by the people, no matter if they go for a constitutional monarchy or a republic, provided either form is based on parliamentary democracy, secularism and plurality, where all Iranians are equal, regardless of sex, ethnic or religion". This is my mission and don’t expect more than that from me”, he pointed out, adding with conviction that the future king of queen should reign, but not rule”, a veiled reference to the former Monarchy where his father had become an authoritarian Monarch.

ENDS REZA PAHLAVI PRESS CONF 10204

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2004/Feb_04/reza_pahlavi_press_conf_10204.htm

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.