Reza Pahlavi's interview with Al Bilad press
[AL- BILAD]: Your Highness, what are the secret map and movements of the Iranian opposition abroad, and how it will invest in the protests within Iran specially it has been witnessed on the deterioration of the situation in Iran and the repression and violence that is happening in confronting it?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: You rightly reference the protests and repression in my country. What is even more important to notice is the increased frequency with which these protests are occurring. It used to be that protests occurred every ten years or so, then every few years, now we are seeing them every few months if not every few weeks. Importantly, they are also in every corner of the country. From our major cities like Tehran and Mashhad to our smaller towns and villages, we are seeing protests everywhere with protesters from every social strata. Those, as you say, have faced significant repression from the regime. However, we are starting to see members of the security forces double-guessing their orders to crack down. They are starting to ask themselves why they should shoot their own compatriots. We saw this most recently in Esfahan.
These protests, however, need support with integration– meaning connecting the protests to one another and amplifying their voices. This is something the opposition can and should do. Especially from outside the country, since nodes of extensive coordination inside are highly vulnerable. Secondly, the opposition must continue to spread this message to the international community. The world must be made aware of what Iranians know so acutely– this regime will collapse. Is the world ready for the day after? Is the region?
[AL-BILAD]: How do you view the regime in Iran in terms of the ability to survive, continue, and overcome the internal pressures and challenges it faces, as well as its management of the outstanding files with the international community, the most important of which is the nuclear file and the tension and attraction currently taking place in the Vienna negotiations and Iranian procrastinations?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: Totalitarian states always survive. Until they don’t. Their precipitous falls always surprise those who look at them from the outside without insight into their twin, terminal problems– poverty at home and fighting against the rest of the world. This is exactly what we are seeing in Iran today. This regime is sacrificing the resources it should be spending on the Iranian people to fight for its ideology around the world. Iranians are fed up with this. The people of Iran, from all walks of life, economic backgrounds, political persuasions, and age groups, have now turned against the regime.
Well, saying the nuclear file is the most important issue is what the regime wants you to think. Mr. Obama bought that argument. In reality however, the most important issue is the regime’s regional ambitions and its desire to establish a Shiite caliphate. With its comparable symmetric disadvantages, as opposed to what we had before the revolution, the regime forces the nuclear issue to divert attention from its symmetric weakness. Even talking about the nuclear issue as the most important issue is accepting their false premise.
[AL BILAD]: The news reverberates from time to time about conducting dialogue between Iran and some countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, for example, in the hope of rapprochement and establish the relations. In your opinion, can such attempts succeed? Or are there are policy differences that hinder their success?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: have worked to free my country for more than four decades. In that time, I have met with political leaders from across our region. They are thoughtful individuals. I know that they know that this regime will never, ever change its behavior. I am sure they recall the quote from Ruhollah Khomeini who said that he may be willing to forget Qods (Jerusalem) and the cause of the Palestinians, but he would never be willing to forget his desire to unseat al-Saud. Khamenei does not have the legitimacy to alter that edict.
They know that the only path to stability and truly productive relations is with a secular, democratic Iran that the Iranian people want to build. This Iran that we envision would balance our own national pride with respect for our neighbors and goodwill to cooperate with them. Our friends in the region must maintain some level of government-to-government contact, but they will not lead anywhere and certainly not to an end to their most important concerns with this regime.
[AL BILAD]: From the scenes of every follower of the evolution and developments of the region is that tension prevails in any region where Iran is present in any way, whether directly or through its proxies and followers in the region. What are the consequences of the actions of this regime, and what is your first vision of the mechanisms of confrontation and confronting this negative and dangerous Iranian presence, and what are your plans as opposition to make Iranian policy committed to the principles of international relations, the rules of good neighborliness and non-compliance with interference in the internal affairs of others?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: This regime claimed it was coming to power to end imperialism. What it has instead done is enacted its own form of brutal imperialism on our region. From its support of the Houthis to its support of Bashar Assad’s war on the Syrian people, to its support of Hezbollah in destroying Lebanon, to its support of terrorists in Iraq, the list goes on. The regime in my country is intent on sowing chaos in our region because it thrives on chaos, and the chaos allows it to further insert itself as a regional power.
This is not a tactic the regime uses. It is its strategy. It is part of its DNA. It is dedicated to “exporting the revolution” and destabilizing the countries in our region for its own gain. Again, Khamenei does not have the desire or ability to change this because it would mean the end of this regime and its campaign to establish a Shiite caliphate that destabilizes and dethrones our friends in the region.
The alternative, however, represented by a diverse coalition of the opposition and the vast majority of the Iranian people is something very different. We Iranians want to live at peace with our neighbors. We want peace with Bahrainis, Saudis, Emiratis, Kuwaitis, Israelis, everyone. The future Iran will have no intention to interfere in the domestic affairs of our neighbors and we will expect the same in return– the majority of the secular, democratic opposition agrees on this. More than peace, we want productive cooperation. That is only possible if the Iranian people are successful in their quest for freedom.
[AL-BILAD]: There are forces and institutions that represent a state within the Iranian state that imposes its control and dominance over the ruling regime in Tehran, such as the Revolutionary Guards, is the Iranian opposition, if it comes to power, in Tehran capable of dealing with these forces and institutions, and how will it manage internal files and the nuclear program?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: I myself was a soldier. I served my nation as a fighter pilot, and when Saddam Hussein invaded my country, though I was in exile, I volunteered to return to defend Iran. This is how the vast majority of our soldiers think-- they are dedicated to defending Iran, not this regime. I have had the concept of national reconciliation as a guiding principle in my fight for freedom for Iran in the past four decades and perhaps the most important component of that is the role the armed forces will play in the post-Islamic Republic Iran.
But let us consider the role of the IRGC. The reason for itscreation and its Constitutionally defined purpose is to defend and export their Revolution. When this revolutionary regime collapses, what will it have to defend? Nothing. So once its interference in the economy and gross corruption, despised by the Iranian people, ends it will lose its autonomy and come under a new political leadership not dependent on oppression within, and destabilization outside Iran’s borders. With ideological zealots removed from command by a popular movement, the remaining soldiers will beintegrated into our regular armed forces to defend our country and its borders.
We will reintegrate them into our society and avoid the catastrophic mistakes made, for example, in Iraq in which the armed forces were dismissed en masse and took up arms to cause chaos and terror and instability to this day. It is for that reason that I am constantly speaking, publicly and privately, to the armed forces and even the Revolutionary Guards to tell them that when the time comes they must side with the Iranian people, not this regime. Their future is with their compatriots, not a dying regime.
Let us recall that Iran before the Revolution was perfectly capable of national defense without nuclear weapons. Similarly, after this regime, a new Iran that does not create enemies by interfering in their domestic affairs will not need nuclear weapons.
[AL-BILAD]: What is the vision and perception of the opposition for the future of relations between Iran and the Kingdom of Bahrain as well as the neighboring countries and how to work together on various issues and crises in the region?
[REZA PAHLAVI]: The future of Iran belongs to a new generation. They are a generation sick and tired of poverty, squalor, and repression so evident throughout the regime’s Axis of Resistance in the region. This regime leads this axis in opposition to marked success of the Alliance of Progress exemplified most remarkably by the Abraham Accords.
It is beyond the scope of this interview to go into the details of the immense possibilities and opportunities once Iran joins the alliance. I am very optimistic about what we can achieve with our sisters and brothers across the region through collective security arrangements, a common market, and more.