Reza Pahlavi: Lifting Sanctions is Futile; Islamic Republic is Engaged in ‘Extortion’
Prince Reza Pahlavi says that ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and the United States, being conducted indirectly in Vienna, are “fruitless” because the regime ruling Iran “only responds to pressure.”
According to the son of Iran’s last shah, if economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic are lifted, Tehran will use the money it receives “only to finance more terrorism and create greater instability in the region.”
Prince Reza Pahlavi discussed ongoing Iran-West negotiations, current relations between Tehran and regional and global countries in a detailed interview with “Arab News” published on Sunday, June 9. The “Arab News” website conducted this interview as part of a new round of “frank and honest” dialogues with influential politicians and leaders in the region.
In this interview, Prince Reza Pahlavi emphasized that reducing pressure on Iran’s ruling regime will only result in greater audacity from Tehran’s rulers.
Recalling the “soft power” policy of the Barack Obama administration toward Tehran, he added that if the pressure of economic sanctions were lifted from the regime in the current period, the Tehran government would not seek to improve the economic situation of Iran’s own people. Rather, by activating its allied militias more actively in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, it would intensify attacks in this part of the region, including aggression against Saudi Arabia.
This interview was published as another round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers, aimed at bringing the United States back to the JCPOA, continues in Austria’s capital. However, the U.S. Secretary of State has repeatedly said that there is no sign of Iran’s willingness or seriousness in returning to its nuclear commitments.
Meanwhile, Hassan Rouhani, in the final weeks of his presidency, claims that the United States has accepted lifting all non-JCPOA sanctions.
Prince Pahlavi argued that if the West changes its behavior toward Iran, the regime ruling Tehran fundamentally “cannot change its behavior; because its entire existence depends on exporting its ideology and through that, while activating proxy groups, it pursues the dream of dominating the region.”
He described Iran and Saudi Arabia’s crisis-ridden relations as a direct result of the incompetence of Tehran’s rulers.
Prince Reza Pahlavi said that during the previous Iranian government, there was a time when people from Dubai longed to travel to Iran and shop at modern Iranian establishments, but now many Iranians yearn while witnessing the progress of neighboring and other countries and the worrisome decline of their homeland.
He expressed “confidence” that in today’s Iran, “even religious and pious people” are dissatisfied with the Islamic Republic because they clearly see the blows that have been struck against faith and the clerical institution because of the existence of a system called the Islamic Republic.
Prince Reza Pahlavi regarded the leaked confidential audio file of Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Foreign Minister, as a source of satisfaction. In his view, the hearing of these statements by the West proved that the current government is an autocratic institution in which all matters depend on the leader’s decisions, and individuals who have so far been introduced as “moderates” have no role in advancing the country’s affairs.
Mr. Pahlavi clearly stated that he does not harbor ambitions of monarchy and that the choice of the future system of government in Iran, in the event of the current regime’s collapse, rests solely with the Iranian people. He stressed that his political mission will end with the end of the current Iranian regime, and that point is Iran’s freedom and the creation of an opportunity to establish a new, secular, and democratic system.
Source: Radio Farda
