Reza Pahlavi to the United Nations: Stop the killing of the Iranian people
Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran, in a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations called for the use of “all available facilities and tools” of the organization to “prevent the ‘massacre’ of the Iranian people by the Islamic Republic.”
Referring to the violent suppression of the November protests and the killing of hundreds of protesters, including children, in Iran, the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, called on the UN Secretary-General to "take immediate action and use all available means and tools, including the capacity of the UN Security Council, to end this massacre."
In an open letter to Antonio Guterres on December 9, Prince Reza Pahlavi wrote: "The United Nations, which has accepted the protection of human rights as its primary duty, can no longer sit idly by; rather, it must take urgent and necessary measures to stop the Islamic Republic's massacre of the Iranian people."
Referring to a letter he wrote to the former head of the organization in 2012 to refer "documented and court-worthy allegations" against the Islamic Republic "to the International Criminal Court," he called the new UN chief's responsibility more burdensome than before and considered "silence at the UN to mean turning a blind eye to the actions of the Islamic Republic."
Reza Pahlavi emphasized that the regime seeks to destroy the Iranian nation and history through “brutal repression and massacre of Iranians.” He referred to the internet shutdowns and disruptions of landline and mobile phones during the recent unrest, calling the move aimed at preventing the world from witnessing Iran’s “reckless massacre of protesters.”
"Genocide" of the Iranian people
In his letter to Guterres, Reza Pahlavi called “what the Iranian people are facing practically a genocide” and, referring to the “systematic arrests, torture, and killing of many Iranians for their cultural identity and national ideals,” considered the Iranian regime’s “atrocities and brutalities” to be “evidence of crimes against humanity.”
He emphasized that although the recent protests were sparked by a 200% increase in gasoline prices, the root of the uprising was the "widespread dissatisfaction of the Iranian people" with the Islamic Republic regime.
Amnesty International has put the death toll from the recent protests in Iran at 208. Hundreds have been injured and thousands have been arrested, many of whom are still unaccounted for.
Fatemeh Hosseini, head of the Technology and Innovation Faction of the Iranian Parliament, told ILNA on Tuesday, December 9, that the direct damage to technology businesses in Iran after the internet shutdown was 2.5 billion Tomans per day.
