'This is our Berlin Wall moment. So why is Starmer all but silent on the plight of the Iranians?': A powerful intervention from the son of the late Shah of Iran | Retrui News | Retrui
'This is our Berlin Wall moment. So why is Starmer all but silent on the plight of the Iranians?': A powerful intervention from the son of the late Shah of Iran
SOURCE:Daily Mail
The chant resounds through the streets of Iran's holiest cities. 'The final battle. Pahlavi will return,' the protesters cry. 'Javid Shah! [Long live the Shah!].
The chant resounds through the streets and squares of Iran's holiest cities. 'The final battle. Pahlavi will return,' the protesters cry. 'Javid Shah! Javid Shah! [Long live the Shah! Long live the Shah!]. Reza Shah, God bless your soul.'
The name Pahlavi is also emblazoned across the posters and placards held up by many of the tens of thousands of courageous souls as they brave the bitter cold and the batons and bullets of Iran's oppressive Islamist theocracy.
It is a name deeply feared by the murderous regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, Iran's Supreme Leader. For it has the power to unite Iranians from all walks of life, and is seen as a harbinger of hope, change and an end to the loathed mullahs.
No one is more aware of the importance of this moment in his nation's
history than Pahlavi himself, who here gives his first interview to a British newspaper since the protests began.
Pahlavi was 18 and in the US training to be a pilot when his father fled to Egypt almost 47 years ago during the 1979 Revolution. He has not set foot on his native soil since then, and has spent the intervening years campaigning to bring an end to the grimly repressive mullahs.
Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi says a free Iran will bring stability and prosperity for the world
So is the Crown Prince now ready to return? He hedges his reply. 'Protesters are chanting my name in towns and cities across Iran,' he tells me. 'It is a huge responsibility they are placing on my shoulders. It is a responsibility I accept.'
Not that he expects a position of power if he does return. 'I am not putting myself forward as a candidate for anything. I step forward not as a ruler-in-waiting but as a steward of national transition to democracy.
'I will bring together Iran's democratic forces, monarchists, republicans, secular and religious activists, civilians and members of the armed forces who want to see Iran stable again.'
He insists we are at a pivotal moment: 'The Republic is close to collapse. This is our Berlin Wall moment. We have a golden opportunity for change.'
Despite the Iranian military's deadly reprisals against protesters, he urges them to back that opportunity. 'Use your weapons not to fire on the people but to protect them,' he pleads.
'The regime has killed hundreds of protesters in the past few days,' he adds. 'Thousands and thousands have been arrested. I welcome President Trump's ultimatum to the regime to stop the killing or face the consequences. Other Western governments should now join him.'
Not least, the British Government, he says. Pahlavi is less than impressed by Keir Starmer and his limp statement issued with the leaders of France and Germany on Friday: 'We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint, to refrain from violence, and to uphold the fundamental rights of Iran's citizens.'
A demonstration in London, in support of the protests in Iran and against the Islamic Republic and Ayatollah, outside the Iranian Embassy in Kensington
Protesters in London hold placards carrying the image of exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi
Pahlavi cannot contain his exasperation: 'Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been all but silent on the plight of the Iranian people. I can't imagine him being silent in previous eras about the struggle against apartheid and for Solidarity in Poland.
'A free Iran will be a force for stability and prosperity for the world. It is in the British interest as well as ours.'
It was last summer, just after Israel bombed Iran's military and nuclear installations for 12 successive days, that I first met Pahlavi. He had come to Britain on a tour to persuade European leaders to support his campaign to help oust the mullahs.
We met in a suite at Claridge's hotel in London. The venue was confirmed only an hour before our meeting for security reasons – he is under constant threat of assassination by the Iranian regime.
He wore a crisp dark suit as well as a tie (they are banned in Iran as un-Islamic and a symbol of Western decadence). Softly spoken, he had a quiet grace as we drank tea.
He was angry that No 10 and the Foreign Office had shunned him on his visit. 'It is not very British,' he said, before again lamenting Starmer's equivocal stance. 'I beg you, don't throw a lifeline to this regime. Stand with the Iranian people. Appeasement is not working. Don't straddle the fence,' he begged.
In Opposition, Starmer pledged he would proscribe as a terrorist organisation the sinister Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) established after the Revolution. It is seen as the regime's principle defender, with covert operations across the world.
Yet in power, Starmer has signally failed to keep his word. 'Proscribing is vital to protect your own national security interests,' said Pahlavi. 'The IRGC tentacles are already in Britain, in terrorist sleeper cells, in your universities, they infiltrate your charities.
Pahlavi is less than impressed by Keir Starmer and his limp statement issued with the leaders of France and Germany on Friday: 'We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint, to refrain from violence, and to uphold the fundamental rights of Iran's citizens'
'It's like a weed in your garden. You chop it, but it grows back.'
Pahlavi could not return to Iran with the IRGC still effectively in power. Which is why his presence in the country would be seen as proof of the Islamic Republic's final collapse. Easily the most recognisable opposition figure for Iranians, he even looks like the late Shah. Significantly, many calling for his return weren't even born during the grotesque extravagance of his father's 38-year reign.
The beginning of the end came in 1971 when the self-styled King of Kings staged a five-day festival to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian empire.
Money was no object. A lavish tent city using 23 miles of silk was put up in a specially created oasis. Maxim's of Paris, the world's top restaurant at the time, closed for two weeks to cater for the banquet served to 60 kings, queens and presidents, and washed down with the rarest wines.
Guests including Prince Philip and Princess Anne were treated to a pageant of thousands of soldiers dressed in ancient Persian costume amid the ruins of Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Achaemenid Empire.
Pahlavi lives well in in Washington DC. His home is a gated, seven-bedroom, Georgian-style property spread over 11,500sq ft, complete with a large carriage house and swimming pool
The event, costing £200 million in today's prices in a country where the majority of the population lived in poverty, was a trigger for the coup a few years later.
Just as the military is slaughtering protesters today, the Shah's soldiers opened fire on protesters demonstrating against his regime, killing at least 64 people in Tehran's Jaleh Square in one night alone on September 8, 1978, now known as 'Black Friday'.
Pahlavi accepts there were serious issues with corruption and the brutal treatment of prisoners and protesters under the rule of his father, who was reportedly worth £2 billion. 'I'm not denying there were problems,' he says.
And what of reports about his own billionaire lifestyle as a full-time campaigner? 'It's not true. Nor have I accepted any government funds or any money from any foreign source. I have accepted the support of private citizens to sustain our campaign. Otherwise I would have to quit politics to pursue a business career.'
But he lives well. Home, in the Potomac suburb of Washington DC, is a gated, seven-bedroom, Georgian-style property spread over 11,500 sq ft, complete with a large carriage house and swimming pool.
He has been married to Princess Yasmine since 1986. They are a close family with three daughters, and he speaks most days to his mother Farah, a well-preserved 87, who lives in Paris.
The third wife of the former Shah, Farah married him when she was 21 in 1959 and produced the son to keep alive the line of succession. She too wants to return home.
Would modern-day Iranians welcome back their last monarch? He's convinced they would. And he's already planning his first celebratory meal – a far cry from the Rolls-Royce lifestyle of his late father.
'It will be a traditional national dish in a little kebab house I went to when I was a young boy near the palace in a square in Tehran,' he says.
A square which over recent days has seen countless protesters chanting out his name – and being brutalised for doing so.