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
