Reza Pahlavi: Enmity with Israel guarantees the stability and security of the Islamic Republic
In an interview with an Israeli media outlet, the former crown prince of Iran emphasized that the Islamic Republic is a threat to the state of Israel. He said that hostility towards Israel is not a tactic, but rather a mortar that guarantees the stability and security of the Islamic Republic.
In an interview with the Israel Hayom website, Prince Reza Pahlavi expressed his views on the JCPOA, the Joe Biden administration, the Abraham Accords, and Iran's relationship with Israel.
He said about the new US government that he has always asked every government that has come to power in the US, as well as every foreign government, whether it will stand by the Iranian people. He said that standing by the Iranian people is beneficial not only for his countrymen but also for the national interests of these governments.
Reza Pahlavi also said that the Biden administration is making a miscalculation: "They want to return to the JCPOA while their sworn enemy is hastily and quietly increasing uranium enrichment fivefold."
He continued that the Islamic Republic began enriching uranium knowing that the next US administration intended to return to the JCPOA. Mr. Pahlavi called Iran’s move “blackmailing the free world.”
Reza Pahlavi has 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.
He said of the JCPOA: “The fundamental problem with the JCPOA is that it is based on the false inference that [the Islamic Republic] will change its behavior. The four Western countries that signed the JCPOA believed that the regime would change its behavior, but that did not happen. Iranians know that the regime is not run based on our national interests, but on its own corrupt and criminal interests.”
He continued: "That is why, in my conversations with the leaders of foreign countries, I have told them that the only appropriate solution to this crisis is to support the Iranian people, not compromise with their occupiers."
Reza Pahlavi has cited this issue as the reason why several activists inside Iran wrote a letter to Joe Biden to continue the policy of maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic.
These individuals, including Manouchehr Bakhtiari, Mohammad Nourizad, Zaratosht Ahmadi Ragheb, Fatemeh Sepehri, and Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, have called on Biden to continue maximum pressure on Iran until the “Iranians’ desire to achieve a secular democratic system” is realized.
JCPOA: Good for the Islamic Republic and Bad for the West
Reza Pahlavi continued his interview by stating that the money from the JCPOA gave the Revolutionary Guard the opportunity to invest in "the largest network of terror and organized crime in the world" and to continue to "destabilize dozens of countries" in the region.
He then asked: "What did the Islamic Republic lose? Maybe just a few months to get a nuclear weapon, but with an open hand to create chaos in the region. The regime no longer even needs nuclear weapons."
In Reza Pahlavi's opinion, the Islamic Republic has launched a proxy war of minimal intensity in the region through its armed groups, and for this reason, it only needs a "nuclear umbrella" to prevent the escalation of these conflicts.
Prince Pahlavi believes that if the JCPOA can guarantee that the conflict in the region will not escalate, the Islamic Republic will have achieved what it wanted and will therefore continue its "regional expansionism" with mild operations.
What the West is losing in the meantime, in Mr. Pahlavi's opinion, is what it is seeking: peace and stability in the region.
He concludes: “That 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.”
Defending the Abraham Accords
Reza Pahlavi defended the Ibrahim Peace Agreement, calling it an agreement for "progress, eliminating the corruption and misery of youth in occupied countries and countries of the resistance axis" such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria.
The Abraham Accords are the name given to the normalization of Israel's relations with Arab countries. The agreements have so far been signed with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Reza Pahlavi also said that as long as the Islamic Republic exists, there is no possibility of normalizing relations between Iran and Israel. According to him, hostility towards Israel is not a tactic, but the regime needs a “common enemy” to bring together the different factions.
He considered hostility towards Israel to be “ideological glue or mortar” that the security and stability of the Islamic Republic requires. He did not consider the statements of the Islamic Republic officials in this regard to be just a harmless verbal battle and emphasized that the Islamic Republic is a threat to the State of Israel.
The fall of the Islamic Republic in a short time
In response to an Israeli media question about whether the Iranian regime would fall soon, the former crown prince of Iran said: "I have no doubt... In the past three years, the changes have been so great that only a few in Iran still believe that the younger generation will tolerate this backward regime for much longer."
Reza Pahlavi considered his father's reign to be "the best of times" and asked: "Which nation trusts a regime that has brought them the worst of times after the best of times?"
He said that all the analysis he reads and his contacts with people inside Iran indicate that the regime's popularity is declining sharply. He believes that even within the regime's own structure, support for it has declined sharply.
In response to the Israeli journalist's last question about his message to the Israeli people, Reza Pahlavi 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 value life and not death. People who think like us, like the Israeli people, are naturally our friends and allies."
Source: DW
