Reza Pahlavi: Enmity with Israel Guarantees the Stability and Security of the Islamic Republic

Iran’s former crown prince emphasized in an interview with an Israeli media outlet that the Islamic Republic poses a threat to the State of Israel. He stated that enmity with Israel is not a tactic but rather an ideological glue that guarantees the stability and security of the Islamic Republic.

Prince Reza Pahlavi, in an interview with the website “Israel Hayom,” expressed his views on the JCPOA, the Biden administration, the Abraham Accords, and Iran’s relationship with Israel.

Regarding the new U.S. administration, he stated that he has consistently raised the question to every U.S. administration and foreign government: will you stand with the Iranian people? He said that standing with the Iranian people is not only beneficial for his compatriots but also serves the national interests of these governments.

Reza Pahlavi also stated that the Biden administration is making a strategic miscalculation: “They want to return to the JCPOA while their sworn enemy is hastily and quietly quintupling uranium enrichment.”

He continued that the Islamic Republic began uranium enrichment knowing that the next U.S. administration intended to return to the JCPOA. Mr. Pahlavi called Iran’s action “extortion of the free world.”

Reza Pahlavi emphasized that the only solution for America, for security concerns in the region, and for the Iranian people is to support the struggle for freedom and democracy in Iran.

Regarding the JCPOA, he stated: “The fundamental problem with the JCPOA is that it is based on an incorrect assumption about changing behavior [of the Islamic Republic]. Four Western signatories to the JCPOA believed the regime would change its behavior, but this did not happen. Iranians know that the regime is run not based on our national interests but on its own corrupt and criminal interests.”

He continued: “This is why, in my conversations with leaders of foreign countries, I have told them that the only appropriate solution to this crisis is to support the Iranian people, not to compromise with their occupiers.”

Reza Pahlavi also cited the same issue as the reason why several Iranian activists wrote to Joe Biden to continue the policy of maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic.

These individuals, including Manouchehr Bakhtiari, Mohammad Nourizad, Zarathushtra Ahmadi Ragab, Fatemeh Sepehri, and Hashmatalah Tabarzadi, asked Biden to continue maximum pressure on Iran until the “Iranians’ aspiration to achieve a secular democratic system” is realized.

JCPOA: Good for the Islamic Republic and Bad for the West

Reza Pahlavi further stated that the money from the JCPOA gave the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the opportunity to invest in “the largest terrorist network and organized crime network in the world” and to continue “destabilizing dozens of countries” in the region.

He then asked: “What did the Islamic Republic lose? Perhaps only a few months to reach a nuclear weapon, but with an open hand to create chaos in the region. The regime no longer even needs a nuclear weapon.”

According to Reza Pahlavi, the Islamic Republic has launched a proxy war with minimal intensity in the region through its armed groups. And therefore, it only needs a “nuclear umbrella” to prevent the escalation of these conflicts.

Prince Pahlavi believes that if the JCPOA can guarantee that conflicts in the region will not escalate, the Islamic Republic will achieve what it wanted and consequently continue its “regional expansionism” through covert operations.

What the West loses in this process, according to Mr. Pahlavi, is what it seeks: peace and stability in the region.

He concludes: “This is why the JCPOA is a good deal for the Islamic Republic and a bad deal for the West and the people of the Middle East.”

Defense of the Abraham Accords

Reza Pahlavi, in defense of the Abraham Accords, described it as an agreement for “progress, eliminating the ruin and misery of youth in occupied countries and countries of the axis of resistance” such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria.

The Abraham Accords is a name given to the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries. This agreement has been signed so far with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Reza Pahlavi also stated that as long as the Islamic Republic exists, there is no possibility of normalizing relations between Iran and Israel. According to him, enmity with Israel is not a tactic; rather, the regime needs a “common enemy” to be able to gather different factions together.

He described enmity with Israel as “ideological glue or adhesive” that the Islamic Republic needs for its security and stability. He did not consider the statements of Islamic Republic officials in this regard merely as harmless rhetoric and emphasized that the Islamic Republic poses a threat to the State of Israel.

Collapse of the Islamic Republic in the Short Term

Iran’s former crown prince, in response to the Israeli media’s question about whether Iran’s regime will collapse soon, said: “I have no doubt…. In the past three years, changes have been such that only a few in Iran still believe that the young generation will tolerate this backward regime much longer.”

Reza Pahlavi described the era of his father’s rule as “the best of times” and asked: “What nation trusts a regime that has made the worst of times for them after the best of times?”

He stated that all the analyses he reads and his interactions with people inside Iran indicate that the regime’s popularity is sharply declining. He believes that even within the regime’s own structure, support for it has severely diminished.

Reza Pahlavi, in response to the Israeli reporter’s final question about his message to the Israeli people, said: “The Islamic regime has praised death since its inception. But my message to the Israeli people is: long live! (He said this word in Hebrew). We Iranians as a civilization prefer to cherish life and not death. People who think like us are naturally our friends and allies, just like the Israeli people.”

Source: DW