Posted on 06/04/2003 2:58:00 PM PDT by jazzyjen97
ANKARA, Turkey - The son of the late shah of Iran has said he believes there will be protests, strikes and a non-violent uprising against the Iranian regime in July, a Turkish newspaper reported Wednesday.
Reza Pahlavi, in an exclusive interview with the daily Vatan, hinted that stopping production in Iran's oil industry would be key to changing the regime dominated by religious leaders into a secular democracy. Pahlavi proposes that Iranians choose a system of governance through a referendum.
"Wait for important developments in Iran in July," Pahlavi told Vatan in an interview in Washington on Monday. "There will be protests, strikes and uprisings of (the) people."
"Iranian people will test (the regime's) prowess without needing a military operation," he said.
Pahlavi argued that many members of the regime were losing their faith in the system and that the army was also uneasy. Iran has seen scattered protests.
Pahlavi, 43, has been pressing for a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience in Iran from his base near Washington. He has not returned to Iran.
"I would like to return to my country as soon as possible," Pahlavi said. "I would like to go no matter what it costs."
Pahlavi said he was not looking to reinstate the monarchy, swept away in 1979 by the Iranian revolution. In a news conference in Paris last year, he had said that he would not refuse a role in a constitutional monarchy.
But he told Vatan that he was now thinking of a secular and democratic system.
"In the past, I was defending the idea of a constitutional monarchy like in England or in (some) European countries," Pahlavi said. "But my views have changed. I think the best for Iran is a secular and democratic system."
Crown Prince Pahlavi was 20 when his father, Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, fled Iran. The shah later died in exile.
U.S. officials have accused Iran of both pursuing a nuclear bomb and harboring al-Qaida terrorists. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah. That year, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Leaders of the Group of Eight powerful nations want Iran to sign an International Atomic Energy Agency protocol allowing inspections of all suspected nuclear sites at any time.
Pahlavi said, however, that there was no need to change the regime militarily like in Iraq or Afghanistan. He said there was a "visible trend" building against Iran's rulers.
"The best way is the overthrow of this rule by the people," Pahlavi said. "For this, the Iranian people defending the regime change must be supported."
This is smart. It proves to all that he really has the best interests of the country at heart. Let the people decide, they will end up making the wisest choice. Their young people are more westernized than most people in this country realize. They've been getting satillite TV for years, as fast as the mad mullahs confiscate the dishes, the kids manufacture and put up new ones.
REza Pahlavi lives here in Los Angeles and broadcasts a program to Iran (or used to) funded by Iranian-Americans. But, as to your post, what is the symbolism of July 9th? Is it a political holiday?
Most excellent point. Wonder if this thought will occur to the media and opinion hounds who "investigate" this thing.
They don't call it (phonetically) "eye RAN". That's an American/English pronunciation. (I'm not aware of any other language where the written letter 'i' has the diphthong sound of "eye" or "ai" in English; usually it conveys the sound "ee".)
They call it "ee' rahn" -- and don't forget to roll that r a bit.
What Reza Jr. had been talking about was not a mediaeval monorchy, but a constitutional monarchy, something along the lines of what Great Britain has (and some of the other European nations, no?). Essentially a figurehead monarchy.
But he's dropped that now, and that's a good thing IMH(and semi-ignorant)O. The people may want him back, but unless they themselves put him into a figurehead position he'll bring back the taint of American, um, installation that was one of the main weaknesses that those who wanted to topple Reza Shah exploited.
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