Washington
HIH is interviewed in Washington DC, by the estimable Simon Heffer, and the Crown Prince discusses his pain concerning the oppression in his homeland. In a very human interview [conducted over mineral water, fish & chips] Heffer finds a man ready to take the throne, but to rule very differently from his late father. The Shah explains that "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,"
And before anyone brushes him of as irrelevant, of a bygone era; you must appreciate the nature of the 3-4 millions strong Iranian exiled dyaspora. They all recognise HIH as their legitimate representative, and the Shah gets regular briefings from 'friends' inside the Iranian state itself. In short: he is not an irrelevance, especially given his pro-democratic and western values of freedom, equality, tolerance.
Heffer explains perhaps rather precisely that "His many conduits of information from Iran tell him the regime is fragmenting, and he eagerly awaits a tipping point."
A tipping point for democracy, and a royal restoration for a modern, free Iran.
'No intervention'
Heffer, always one to ask good questions, elicits a responce from His Imperal Highness that the experiences of Iraq has made him resolute in his opposition to foreign intervention in his home nation. This is another important point, he is a patriot, and not a neo-con pal. He thus carries very real credibility as a future head of state in post-Theocracy Iran.
HIH explains in the Heffer interview:
"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."
He is entirely correct. Any change in Iran MUST be domestic to Iran, let us not sow the ground for a future Palin invasion of Iran! [Gods forbid].
He finishes by pointing out that "I have had contact with members of the Revolutionary Guard since the Iran-Iraq war. I know they know things are no longer tenable. The revolutionaries are my age – they were young kids running around with Kalashnikovs, now they are in their late 40s and 50s and they have children of their own, and they are disillusioned."
Welldone Simon Heffer, let us advocate non-intervention in Iran- instead proceeding via the UN economic sanctions route. Let us create a credible government in exile, ready for government at home. Let us sow the seeds to enable a domestic popular uprising against the vile, evil, murderous Ayatollah and his regime of terror and oppression.
2 comments:
I don't know too much about the Iran situation, but it's hard to imagine that, following the currution of the presidential election, there is not a strong underground movement of people of ages from young to that of the age of the Shah.
His father was an instrument of the West, and there can be no doubting that, with Western nods of approval, he was an evil man.
Eventually the people, supressed by him and his terrible secret police, rose up and followed the Revolution.
Now the revolution has its own version of all the things that the late Shah had, and possibly a few more.
Change will come. You could see that on the streets last summer. There can be no doubt.
What will take its place? The new Shah? Maybe, but he's going to have to prove that he is nothing like his father. There may be others waiting in the wings and of course America and its poodle will want to interefere again to try to make sure that whatever may follow the ayatollahs suits Washington.
I guess that the younger people of Iran want freedoms, but not necessarily a replica of the Western life style. They are religious; they don't want what they see as filth thrown in their faces the way that it was in the days of the old Shah.
I wish them success with some sort of overthrow. But I dounbt it will be done peacefully. I suspect that the current regime will not stand by and let all this slip away from them.
God save the democratic Shah of Iran. Peaceful revolution, a velvet revolution as Gandhi tought.
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