Exiled Prince Explains Why Europe Benefits From ‘Revolution’ In Iran
Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi has once again called on Europe to embrace the “revolution in Iran” while enumerating the benefits of a secular democracy in Tehran.
Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi has once again called on Europe to embrace the “revolution in Iran” while enumerating the benefits of a secular democracy in Tehran.
In thread of tweets extracted from his interview with Austrian national public broadcaster ORF on Thursday, Pahlavi said the strategy of European countries vis-a-vis Iran should be focused on empowering the people while isolating and weakening the Islamic Republic.
Since Europe is geographically near the borders of Iran, it is especially exposed to challenges aggravated by the Islamic Republic, such as security risks and energy demands, he added, noting that the regime is “an unreliable and largely unavailable supply partner in energy,” and “in commerce, an economic market that is neither attractive nor safe as a target for trade or investment.”
He described the policy of engaging with the regime as “betting on a dead horse” and elaborated on how it works against the security interests of Europe. He touched upon some of the issues that the Islamic Republic has been creating for the European countries such as promotion of Islamic extremism and planning and perpetration of assassinations and terror plots on the continent.
He referred to millions of asylum seekers at Europe’s borders, underlining that most of these migrants are coming from the countries that have been hit by unrest due to the destabilizing acts by the Islamic Republic and its proxy militias.
He particularly mentioned the regime’s military support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has caused numerous problems for other European countries. Iran’s Islamic government has supplied hundreds of drones to Russia since mid-2022 that have been used during missile attacks to swarm Ukrainian air defenses. Increasingly short of missiles to sustain its brutal bombing campaign of Ukraine’s towns and cities, Russia has turned to Iran and also North Korea to replenish its stocks.
Prince Pahlavi also denounced the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic blackmail via nuclear proliferation, warning the international community against negotiating with Iran as pundits believe that the regime will not be able to harness its growing inflation without lifting US sanctions.
He also talked about the policy of hostage-taking by the regime and using foreign nationals in the country as bargaining chips to get concessions from other countries. His remarks came on the same day that a hardliner newspaper in Tehran, which is funded by the Supreme Leader and its editor often speaks for Ali Khamenei, demanded that German embassy staff be banned from leaving Iran in response to expulsion of two Iranian diplomats from Berlin.
Pahlavi called it political shortsightedness “to engage the Islamic Republic rather than its opposition” especially at a time when the uprising of the people is yielding results and a secular democrat Iran “would solve many of Europe’s prevailing security issues instantly.”
During a conference in the European American Press Club (EAPC) in Paris on Wednesday, Prince Reza Pahlavi said that if Western countries adopt the policy of “maximum support” for the current protests, the regime will not last long. It would take months as opposed to years, if the international community stands behind the popular protests.
He called for tangible measures to support the Iranians who are out on streets for over five months now such as providing the means for better flow of information and internet access and establishing funds to back the striking workers in the country. Pahlavi suggested that the Islamic Republic’s assets frozen in foreign banks because of sanctions can be used for such purposes.
About his tour of Europe along with fellow dissident figures to garner support for the uprising, he said the voices of the protesters in Iran and the diaspora should be heard by politicians from all across the political spectrum. He referred to his Tuesday meeting with two French senators from different parties, saying the entire political establishments of countries should stand behind the people of Iran.
The question is no longer who will replace the Islamic Republic, but how to overthrow the regime, Pahlavi underlined.
He emphasized that people of Iran do not seek foreign interference and military attack, but want support for their movement against the clerical regime, which can manifest itself in acts of civil disobedience, strikes in different industries and defection among the ranks of the military, especially the lower ranks.
Prince Pahlavi urged the international community not to continue negotiations with the Islamic Republic, saying that instead of seeking the regime’s change of behavior, governments should seek regime change in Iran.
Reiterating the call for designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, he said that it will bring security to the region because its destabilizing activities will decrease. He added that regional countries such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and even Lebanon, which are affected by the destabilizing role of the IRGC, should ask Western countries to list the outfit as a terrorist organization.
He referred to the resolution overwhelmingly passed by the European Parliament in January, expressing hope that European states would act on it and designate the IRGC.
On Monday, an estimated crowd of about 20 to 30 thousand people held a rally in Brussels outside the European Council to call on EU countries to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Thousands of Iranians from all over Europe held a massive rally in Strasbourg in January for the same purpose. Also on Monday, the EU sanctioned 32 Islamic Republic officials, including culture and education ministers, deputy IRGC commander, and several MPs. The move can be seen as a measure to justify the fact that the EU is not yet ready to designate the entirety of the IRGC.
A few hours after Pahlavi’s conference in Paris, two other opposition figures, women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad and Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion addressed a huge rally in the Italian capital Rome. The demonstration in Rome took place a day after the two held a panel about the uprising in Iran at the Italian Senate.
"People of Iran, we are all sentenced to death under the shadow of the Islamic Republic for the crime of being a woman, being gay, being a Jew, being a Baha'i, etc,” Alinejad said, referring to the regime’s persecution of minorities during its 43 years of rule. Calling for unity, she reminded the crowd that they are gathered together from all walks of life and with different ideologies under the banner of “Women, Life, Liberty.”
Esmaeilion talked about freedom as the main goal of the uprising, saying that justice is only achieved in freedom. "Don't be disappointed if they don't put the IRGC in the list of terrorist groups right after a big demonstration," he said, urging more efforts to push world countries toward further isolation of the regime and its most important arm, the IRGC.
He once again demanded the expulsion of the Islamic Republic’s ambassadors from Western countries, noting that "with or without the help of democratic countries, we will topple the dictator."
IRGC Commander-In-Chief Major General Hossein Salami said Wednesday that the threats against the Persian channel’s journalists, which forced the channel to stop its broadcasting in London and move to Washington DC, "show how far the Islamic Revolution's realm of power, field of infiltration and radius of influence has extended."
Iran International was warned by authorities in November that its journalists were under threat from Iranian agents and the Metropolitan Police took measures to strengthen security around the network’s office in the area. On February 18, the network announced that following the advice of UK anti-terrorism officials it decided to temporarily move its studio operations to the US.
The decision solicited condemnations of Iran’s malign activities and worldwide reactions. “At its sharpest, this has involved police and MI5 working together to foil 15 plots since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime,” said a senior official of UK counter terrorism police.
Despite the evident threats against Iran International’s journalists and UK’s acknowledgment of them, as well as several rallies by Iranian diaspora communities across Europe this month to push countries to list the IRGC as a terror outfit, European states are still hesitant.
Economic embargoes and sanctions were among other measures the enemies used along with their entire intelligence and legal systems as well as international institutions and media powers to defeat the Islamic Republic, but they failed, Salami said, implying that the global community did not manage to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization or curb its destabilizing activities in the region and beyond.
Western countries have strongly rebuked Tehran for its bloody crackdown on protests, its military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lack of compromise over its highly disputed nuclear program. The IRGC is the most important arm of the regime, doing the heavy lifting of cracking down on Iranians and circumventing global sanctions to sell oil and funnel money to keep the regime afloat.
Salami added that “the enemies” are disappointed by the failure of all their strategies and have reached out for help from opposition figures “who are not even worth mentioning.”
After a historic forum in Washington earlier this month by eight prominent dissident activists, they have been traveling to events around the world to make the voice of the Iranian opposition heard. Such events signal the emergence of a leadership council in the diaspora to campaign for international support in favor of Iran’s protest movement.
In an interview on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, however, dismissed Iran International’s relocation as a win for the regime, rather a coordinated effort by Western intelligence services.
Kanaani said that the Islamic Republic reserves the right to file a lawsuit against the US over the TV channel’s role in “inciting riots,” reiterating the regime’s propaganda line that blames foreign countries for over five months of antigovernment protests.
“The developments surrounding the Iran International terrorist media indicate that the channel is being supported and managed by the intelligence services of a number of certain countries, including the UK,” the spokesman said. “From our viewpoint, even if the channel is relocated from London to the US, the responsibility will still lie with the governments sponsoring and hosting such quasi-media, particularly the UK government, in relation to its (the channel’s) terrorist, separatist and anti-Iranian activities,” he added.
On Monday, UK’s Security Minister Tom Tugendhat at the British Parliament voiced full support for Iran International TV, saying “The Home Secretary and I absolutely condemn this outrageous violation of our sovereignty, and the attempted violation of the human rights of those journalists.”
“Its operatives and affiliates will be pursued by the Ministry of Intelligence,” Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said in November. “And from now on, any kind of connection with this terrorist organization will be considered to be tantamount to entering into terrorism and a threat to the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
On Monday, an estimated crowd of about 20 to 30 thousand people held a rally in Brussels outside the European Council to call on EU countries to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Thousands of Iranians from all over Europe held a massive rally in Strasbourg in January for the same purpose.