REZA PAHLAVI OF IRAN
PRINCIPAL OPPONENT OF THE ISLAMIC REGIM IN IRAN
OPENING REMARKS
IRAN REALITIES AND PRESPECTIVES
Press Conference – Paris, France
July 2nd, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your time, and attention to the cry for freedom and
democracy in Iran. The past three weeks, my brave compatriots have paid in blood the
price of ripping the façade of acceptability of the regime in Iran, and its legitimacy to
speak for the people of Iran abroad. The ensuing murderous oppression can silence the
streets, and media blackout can reduce world attention. In the West you may see
headlines declaring the end of the protests. Some will say a family quarrel inside the
Islamic regime is over and Mr. Ahmadinejad will govern Iran for another four year term.
But they misread the situation. Although more demonstrations may pop up, and the 10th
anniversary of the student uprising on July 9th is a date to watch, phase one, that is
election-related mass demonstrations is over. But let me clarify what phase two, which is
the phase of national resistance, will look like:
Viewed as a usurper in his second term, Mr. Ahmadinejad's increasing insecurity at
home will compel him to invent foreign enemies, further isolating Iran. Compounded with
low oil prices, the need for slower liquidity growth to limit spiraling inflation, with massive
capital flight and a drained stock market, and a further hemorrhage of skilled managers,
just to name a few problems, he will face insurmountable obstacles in running the day to
day affairs of government. He will need a minimal cooperation of the people for the ship
of state to sail on. Instead he will find burgeoning resistance everywhere, until his
government grinds to a halt.
Disappointed and alarmed, influential clerics, important parliamentary factions and other
institutions will question his ability to cope and undermine his authority from within the
Islamist state. That final paralysis will mark the end of the second phase.
It is hard to predict the third phase. Will a part of the Revolutionary Guards move in to fill
the vacuum created by a collapse of authority and a functioning government? If so, the
regime will be reduced to an unsustainably narrow base of support, expediting its fall.
Will strikes spread and re-energized mass demonstrations sweep the country,
compelling the authorities to yield to public pressure toward a new democratic order? No
exact scenario can be written at this stage, but the end is clear.
Fast rewind to today, let's acknowledge that the path is perilous. The regime has just
appointed a three-man commission to punish those involved in recent demonstrations.
The commissioners are men responsible for tortures and summary executions of
thousands of my countrymen some twenty years ago. After all of these years, the
sounds of rape, torture and dying in Iran's prisons haunt my countrymen. And now those
men are back.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am asking you to help put the spotlight of international attention on their
dastardly deeds in the weeks ahead. This may be the only way of impeding the cruelty of
this regime against those whose only crime was peaceful assembly and expression,
including women campaigning against being treated as something halfway between man
and animal in their courts. For I fear that out of the daylight of world media, the
nightmare of two decades ago will return.
Your second contribution is keeping your political leaders informed about the range and
brutality of the oppression in Iran. Your governments have insisted that they would not
interfere in Iran's internal affairs. I applaud that. Any such attempt will give the tyrants the
excuse they need to paper over their own differences and target anyone struggling for
freedom as a foreign agent. But that is not all they do. They are painting every statement
in defense of human rights as foreign interference. They benefit from the confusion
between the two. It is vital that the free world not fall for such cruel cynicism in the name
of realpolitik. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights knows no national boundaries.
Its defense is not only a moral issue, but a mutual obligation of all governments who are
its signatories.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A movement was born on the 22nd of Khordad in my calendar and 12th of June in yours. It
is not Islamic or anti-Islamic, it is not for capitalism or socialism, nor any other ideology
or specific form of government. It cares little about historical squabbles before its birth. It
is about the sanctity, even more, the sovereignty of the ballot box. By certifying
fraudulent election results, the Supreme leader and the Guardian Council have spent
their authority against the movement. They stand in the people's way, leaving no bridge
behind. The movement may not succeed immediately. It will have its ebbs and flows. It
may not control the street for now. But it will not die.
The Spirit of the movement will permeate every home and workplace, public and private,
grinding the government to a halt until there is no exit for tyrants, but yielding to the
victory of human rights and democracy in Iran.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I stand before you today to ask for your solidarity with my fellow Iranians on their march
towards liberty and justice.
Reza Pahlavi, has been leading a campaign of none-violent defiance against the
theocracy of Iran, he is an accomplished jet-fighter pilot, author of three books, in Farsi,
English and French, and father to three daughters.
- End -
PRINCIPAL OPPONENT OF THE ISLAMIC REGIM IN IRAN
OPENING REMARKS
IRAN REALITIES AND PRESPECTIVES
Press Conference – Paris, France
July 2nd, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your time, and attention to the cry for freedom and
democracy in Iran. The past three weeks, my brave compatriots have paid in blood the
price of ripping the façade of acceptability of the regime in Iran, and its legitimacy to
speak for the people of Iran abroad. The ensuing murderous oppression can silence the
streets, and media blackout can reduce world attention. In the West you may see
headlines declaring the end of the protests. Some will say a family quarrel inside the
Islamic regime is over and Mr. Ahmadinejad will govern Iran for another four year term.
But they misread the situation. Although more demonstrations may pop up, and the 10th
anniversary of the student uprising on July 9th is a date to watch, phase one, that is
election-related mass demonstrations is over. But let me clarify what phase two, which is
the phase of national resistance, will look like:
Viewed as a usurper in his second term, Mr. Ahmadinejad's increasing insecurity at
home will compel him to invent foreign enemies, further isolating Iran. Compounded with
low oil prices, the need for slower liquidity growth to limit spiraling inflation, with massive
capital flight and a drained stock market, and a further hemorrhage of skilled managers,
just to name a few problems, he will face insurmountable obstacles in running the day to
day affairs of government. He will need a minimal cooperation of the people for the ship
of state to sail on. Instead he will find burgeoning resistance everywhere, until his
government grinds to a halt.
Disappointed and alarmed, influential clerics, important parliamentary factions and other
institutions will question his ability to cope and undermine his authority from within the
Islamist state. That final paralysis will mark the end of the second phase.
It is hard to predict the third phase. Will a part of the Revolutionary Guards move in to fill
the vacuum created by a collapse of authority and a functioning government? If so, the
regime will be reduced to an unsustainably narrow base of support, expediting its fall.
Will strikes spread and re-energized mass demonstrations sweep the country,
compelling the authorities to yield to public pressure toward a new democratic order? No
exact scenario can be written at this stage, but the end is clear.
Fast rewind to today, let's acknowledge that the path is perilous. The regime has just
appointed a three-man commission to punish those involved in recent demonstrations.
The commissioners are men responsible for tortures and summary executions of
thousands of my countrymen some twenty years ago. After all of these years, the
sounds of rape, torture and dying in Iran's prisons haunt my countrymen. And now those
men are back.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am asking you to help put the spotlight of international attention on their
dastardly deeds in the weeks ahead. This may be the only way of impeding the cruelty of
this regime against those whose only crime was peaceful assembly and expression,
including women campaigning against being treated as something halfway between man
and animal in their courts. For I fear that out of the daylight of world media, the
nightmare of two decades ago will return.
Your second contribution is keeping your political leaders informed about the range and
brutality of the oppression in Iran. Your governments have insisted that they would not
interfere in Iran's internal affairs. I applaud that. Any such attempt will give the tyrants the
excuse they need to paper over their own differences and target anyone struggling for
freedom as a foreign agent. But that is not all they do. They are painting every statement
in defense of human rights as foreign interference. They benefit from the confusion
between the two. It is vital that the free world not fall for such cruel cynicism in the name
of realpolitik. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights knows no national boundaries.
Its defense is not only a moral issue, but a mutual obligation of all governments who are
its signatories.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A movement was born on the 22nd of Khordad in my calendar and 12th of June in yours. It
is not Islamic or anti-Islamic, it is not for capitalism or socialism, nor any other ideology
or specific form of government. It cares little about historical squabbles before its birth. It
is about the sanctity, even more, the sovereignty of the ballot box. By certifying
fraudulent election results, the Supreme leader and the Guardian Council have spent
their authority against the movement. They stand in the people's way, leaving no bridge
behind. The movement may not succeed immediately. It will have its ebbs and flows. It
may not control the street for now. But it will not die.
The Spirit of the movement will permeate every home and workplace, public and private,
grinding the government to a halt until there is no exit for tyrants, but yielding to the
victory of human rights and democracy in Iran.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I stand before you today to ask for your solidarity with my fellow Iranians on their march
towards liberty and justice.
Reza Pahlavi, has been leading a campaign of none-violent defiance against the
theocracy of Iran, he is an accomplished jet-fighter pilot, author of three books, in Farsi,
English and French, and father to three daughters.
- End -
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