I warned of the dangers of Islam to the West many years before even 9/11. One of the biggest problems is Islam's insistence on there being no separation of politics and religion, no separation of mosque and state. I have said it before, many times, and I will say it again: oil and water simply do not mix. The real problem will never be solved because Western politicians and the Western mainstream media simply skirt around the real problem. – @ Mark Alexander
Showing posts with label Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 08, 2023
Israel-Hamas War: Crown Prince of Iran Tells Piers Morgan Regime "Is The Godfather of Terrorism"
I warned of the dangers of Islam to the West many years before even 9/11. One of the biggest problems is Islam's insistence on there being no separation of politics and religion, no separation of mosque and state. I have said it before, many times, and I will say it again: oil and water simply do not mix. The real problem will never be solved because Western politicians and the Western mainstream media simply skirt around the real problem. – @ Mark Alexander
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Iran's Exiled Crown Prince, Former Empress on i24NEWS
WIKIPEDIA:
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran
Farah Pahlavi, former Empress of Iran
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
Prince Reza Pahlavi Calls for Mass Demonstrations
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Eric Shawn Exclusive: A Plea for a Free Iran
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Iran’s Future: Huw Edwards Interviews Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (2014)
Friday, March 02, 2012
Reza Pahlavi, the son and heir to the last Shah, wants to revive the opposition by uniting critics of the regime behind a common platform. He sees Friday’s elections for the Iranian Majlis, or parliament, as an opportunity.
Calls for a boycott are circulating widely inside the country and activists hope to push the turnout to a record low.
There have also been warnings from hardliners that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was prepared to use the interior ministry to rig the ballot boxes.
“I believe we can find unanimity among a diverse group of forces for the elimination of a system in which the regime tries everything to claim legitimacy,” the prince said.
“We are waiting for this boycott to show that the regime is only hanging on by sheer terror. The last time Iran voted, the regime was not even willing to tolerate its own candidates. There is no more faith in its system.” » | Damien McElroy | Friday, March 02, 2012
Thursday, February 17, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The exiled heir to the Iranian throne has called on the West to seize an opportunity to assist pro-democracy protests calling for the overthrow of the Islamic regime.
Violence erupted in Tehran on Wednesday as a group of pro-regime militia attacked mourners at the funeral of a man killed in protests on Monday. The demonstrations, reportedly inspired by the mass revolt that overthrew the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia, were the first serious challenge to the Islamic regime since the opposition was brutally crushed in 2009.
Also the defeated presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who had spearheaded the 2009 street protests vowed to defy government moves to “hang them” for fermenting unrest.
Sane’e Zhale was killed in a “day of rage” protest on Monday, the regime said it would mobilise its supporters to crush future dissent.
Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran, said Iran’s youth were determined to get rid of an authoritarian government tainted by corruption and misrule in the hope of installing a democracy.
“Fundamental and necessary change is long overdue for our region and we have a whole generation of young Egyptian and Iranians not willing to take no for an answer,” the American-based campaigner for Iranian democracy told the Daily Telegraph. “Democratisation is now an imperative that cannot be denied. It is only a matter of time before the whole region can transform itself.
“But when people are facing a brutal regime it is much more difficult without the help of the free world. The movement could fall back and if people are abandoned it really will be a very ugly development.” Mass protests paralysed Iran in the wake of the June 2009 presidential elections but a vicious response from state-backed militias in which dozens were killed and thousands arrested crushed the opposition movement.
The Prince is now using his base in Washington to ensure that Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State and President Barack Obama do not “fluff” a second opportunity to align America with the freedom-seeking youths on Iran’s streets. >>> Damien McElroy, and Ahmad Vahdat | Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, November 08, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Crown Prince of Iran tells Simon Heffer he is ready to help bring change to his country but says the West needs to increase pressure on the Tehran regime.
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.
"The end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, of military juntas in South America, of the former Soviet Union – all of it came at the hands of the people of those nations themselves," he says. "None of this could have happened without foreign support – but that is not the same as an occupying army that comes in and changes a regime – I don't see how that can ever be legitimate."
The unhappy experience of foreign intervention in Iraq has further convinced him of the importance of avoiding it in Iran.
"Change must come to Iran by civil disobedience and non-violence. I stress that. We can't have change at any cost. It is ultimately a question of the sovereignty of that nation, and what happens must be the will of the people. But how do we determine that? There is an absence of public debate. There is an absence of the ballot box." >>> Simon Heffer | Saturday, November 07, 2009
Critique du livre : Iran : l’heure du choix – Entretiens avec Michel Taubmann >>> Mark Alexander | Thursday, September 03, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
REZA PAHLAVI (رضا پهلوی): Press Conference – Paris, France / Opening Remarks
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: >>> Reza Pahlavi | Thursday, July 02, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Yasmine Etemad Amini was born in Tehran, Iran on July 26, 1968. Her family left Iran in the late 1970's in response to the turmoil that plagued the country. Her early years were spent in California in the U.S. with her parents.
In 1986 she met Prince Reza Pahlavi. Following a brief courtship, they were married on June 12, 1986. Despite the many responsibilities of her new role, Princess Yasmine continued her education, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in political science from George Washington University in Washington DC - Consequently, she received her doctorate in jurisprudence (JD) from George Washington University and was admitted to the Bar in 1998.
Princess Yasmine's professional career culminated in a position as an attorney at The Children's Law Center. This exceptional organization provides legal protection to abused children. The Law Center is recognized for its important work in protecting some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Princess Yasmine Pahlavi lives in the United States with her husband and her three daughters, Princess Noor, born on April 3, 1992 and Princess Iman born on September 12, 1993 and Princess Farah, born on January 17th, 2004. As the spouse of Prince Reza Pahlavi the well being of her compatriots in her homeland is a matter close to her heart as it is to many of the members of the Diaspora. She has also dedicated her life to her own children, as well as the children in her motherland, and those in her immediate community, reflecting her personal and profound commitment to future generations and the opportunities for civil and peaceful coexistence for all people. [Source: The Foundation for the Children of Iran] | Undated
REZA PAHLAVI (رضا پهلوی):It seems somewhat unlikely that a resident of Potomac will be the next ruler of Iran. But Reza Pahlavi, son of the shah and the country's former crown prince, is not ruling out anything.
As Tehran's streets fill with death-to-the-dictator chants, Pahlavi went to the National Press Club yesterday and, in front of 17 television cameras, said he would serve if elected.
"My sole objective is to help my compatriots reach freedom," Pahlavi said. But if and when that happens, he went on, "I'd like to be able to be in my country one day, come behind such a podium, talk to my people and every other candidate . . . let the people decide."
Whatever the Iranian demonstrators are seeking, there is little evidence from their Twitter feeds that they are seeking the restoration of the monarchy -- and Pahlavi, who was a teenager getting flight training in Texas during the Islamic revolution, was shrewd enough not to propose it. "This is not about restitution of an institution," he said. But should a democratic Iran "choose to have me play a more prominent role," he added, "let that be their choice."
That will be for another day. Yesterday, the 48-year-old son of a dictator was merely voicing his hopes that what his countrymen have begun over the last 10 days will become a revolution. "However, I often don't use the word 'revolution,' because I think revolution has a very negative connotation in everybody's collective memory."
Particularly Pahlavi's. His family had lived a life of great extravagance until Ayatollah Khomenei deposed the shah in 1979, a year after Jimmy Carter hailed the monarch as "an island of stability." Even yesterday, the former crown prince was defensive about those days. "They had orders not to hit -- fire on people," he said of his father's troops, who, whatever their orders, managed to kill thousands.
The Pahlavi family's love of the ballot box also is somewhat recent; his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was installed in a CIA coup in 1953 in place of Iran's democratically elected government. But the younger Pahlavi spoke yesterday of the good old days of his father's rein. Before he came out to speak, somebody fiddled with the Iranian flag behind him to reveal the pre-revolution lion symbol. Pahlavi talked about how, under his father, Iran would have had nuclear fuel and reactors by 1983. "The regime is responsible for us having lost that right, and only them," he said.
Still, there could be no doubting the former crown prince's passion. As he spoke of Iran's "cry for freedom and democracy," he was himself, within minutes, crying for his beloved country. "No one -- no one -- will benefit from closing his or her eyes to knives and cables cutting into faces of mouths, of our young and old," he said, and then, choking up, he took a sip of water. "Or from bullets piercing our beloved Neda," he went on, before a sob escaped his mouth at the mention of the girl shot in the protests. Some in the audience applauded to buy him time as he took out a handkerchief to wipe his face. Finally, gripping the lectern determinedly, he vowed that "a movement was born" that "will not rest until it achieves unfettered democracy and human rights in Iran."
The exiled prince accused Iran's supreme ruler of "an ugly moment of disrespect for both God and man," and he spoke, perhaps a bit prematurely, of "this sinking Titanic that the regime is." The Revolutionary Guard Corps, he claimed, is becoming sympathetic to the demonstrators. "This is well beyond elections now," the optimistic exile said. "The moment of truth has arrived in Iran." >>> Dana Milbank, Washington Post | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of the 'Angel of Freedom' whose grisly death in Iran's post-election protests was captured on video and posted on YouTube has said that she only wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran.
In the video, Neda Agha Soltan, is lying on the ground as blood appears to flow from her mouth and nose. Her apparent last moments spread around the world on YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Twitter, turning her into an icon in the clash between Iran's cleric-led government and protesters.
"She only ever said that she wanted one thing, she wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran," Caspian Makan said.
Makan, a 37-year-old photojournalist in Tehran, said he met the 27-year-old music student several months ago on a trip outside the country. Foreign media are banned from covering the demonstrations and the authenticity of the video cannot be verified.
Makan provided photographs of himself with a woman he identified as Soltan and also had her as a friend on his Facebook page and said he had intended to marry her. "I still feel her, I still talk to her," he said.
Makan said that they had argued in the days before her death about her decision to attend the protests, which were part of the self-described "green wave" movement that claims hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole his June 12 re-election.
He said he had asked her not to go out for fear she would be arrested or shot. "I tried to dissuade her from going out in the streets because I'd seen in my work as a journalist that, unfortunately, there are a lot of merciless behaviours," Makan said. >>> | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran Elections: Video of 'Angel of Freedom's' Death Will Haunt the Iranian Regime
Neda Agha Soltan’s importance is that her death has vividly demonstrated how far the Iranian regime stands in violation of its own values, writes Damien McElroy.
The video of a woman dying in the streets of Tehran is a historic turning point that will haunt the Iranian regime for as long as it remains unreconstructed.
That governments should not turn guns on its own people is a universal truth of powerful force. Twenty years on from the great convulsion against Communism in 1989, the world is shaped by that principle. Those states that did not, like Poland, have been transformed into mostly free democracies. Those that did, like China, have for all the gloss, merely postponed a process of historic reckoning.
What doubles the impact of the image for Iran is the hold that martyrdom - death for a cause - has exerted on the national imagination. The blood that defines the seconds of mobile phone footage that shows Neda Agha Soltan losing her life is central to the character of the Iranian nation. >>> Damien McElroy | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Iranian Authorities Scramble to Negate Neda Soltan 'Martyrdom'
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.
Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil.
The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death.
Today it was reported that they had also told her family to take down the black mourning banners outside their home in the Tehran suburbs to prevent it becoming a place of pilgrimage. They were also told they could not hold a memorial service at a mosque.
Nevertheless posters of Miss Soltan's face have started to appear all over Tehran.
The attempted crackdown came as friends present as Miss Soltan died came forward to detail what happened.
Hamid Panahi, her friend and music teacher, told the Los Angeles Times how Miss Soltan was shot as they and two others were making their way to a demonstration in Freedom Square in central Tehran. Their car became stuck in traffic on Karegar Street and they got out for some air.
Mr Panahi said that he heard a distant crack and saw Miss Soltan instantly collapse to the ground.
"We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch and, without her throwing a rock or anything, they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."
He later heard other witnesses claiming that the gunman was not a police officer but one of a group of plainclothes officials or Basiji militia.
He recalled watching in horror as blood came out of her chest and then began to bubble from her nose and mouth - footage that bystanders captured on their mobile phones and posted on the internet, where she has become a global phenomenon.
Mr Panahi said that Neda's last words before she slipped into unconsciousness were: "I'm burning! I'm burning!" >>> Jenny Booth | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'
WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.
"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."
Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.
The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.
During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.
The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.
Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.
"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.
"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'
WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.
"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."
Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.
The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.
During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.
The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.
Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.
"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.
"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
REZA PAHLAVI (رضا پهلوی): WASHINGTON - The growing street protests over Iran's disputed presidential election mark the biggest threat to its ruling clerics since they took power in 1979 with the U.S.-backed shah's fall, the shah's son said on Tuesday.
Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran who now lives in the United States, said the protests almost have reached the level of a revolution that could usher in major reforms.
"It is clear that the genie is out of the bottle," Pahlavi, 48, said in an interview with Reuters Television.
But he declined to predict whether the end result would be the toppling of the political leadership of Shi'ite Muslim clerics installed after his father lost power.
"Today, the people are, in reality, challenging the whole system," added Pahlavi, who describes himself as an advocate for democracy and human rights in Iran.
He said he does not believe the protests are only over the disputed election, but reflect a widespread desire for reform and more freedoms three decades after the revolution.
Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate, Mirhossein Mousavi, have taken to the streets to dispute the outcome of last week's election in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei favored Ahmadinejad.
"Today, especially the younger generation has had it. They are risking their lives in the streets of Iran to demonstrate to the regime that they are not going to take it any more. But (they are) also telling the whole world, 'Hey, what are you going to do? Are you going to finally side with us, or are you continuing to focus only on the regime?'" he added. >>> By Will Dunham, Reuters | Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Reza Pahlavi >>>
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