イランと世界にの人々にメッセージを送りました。
必ず英語を読んで訳して下さい。
フリージャーナリスト 桜井 サム
Interview with The Media Line, 28 June
The Media Line
Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
"I'm not running for office right now," he continued. "My job is to help my compatriots achieve liberty and get rid of this system... if at that time my fellow compatriots want me to play a prominent role in the political scene, they will have to decide that then."
The heir to the throne of the deposed Shah of Iran says he is willing to die for his country and is ready to return and "play a prominent role" in Iranian affairs.
"My moment for the return to my country will come, I assure you," Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, told The Media Line in an exclusive interview from his home in Washington, DC. "I want to be in my homeland. I have been forced into a scenario of exile," he said. "I believe that any Iranian like myself should have the right to live in his own country and contribute the best that one can as an Iranian to the betterment of our country."
Pahlavi's father died in exile after being ousted during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
To many, the likelihood that the Shah's son could become the next leader of Iran is slim, but in the turmoil following the recent elections, the possible resurrection of the Iranian monarchy is once again being discussed.
"I'm not running for office right now," he continued. "My job is to help my compatriots achieve liberty and get rid of this system... if at that time my fellow compatriots want me to play a prominent role in the political scene, they will have to decide that then."
Over the weekend it was revealed that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are hunting for the protesters captured in widely distributed photographs of the demonstrations, and Amnesty International accused the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group, of going into hospitals to arrest activists injured in street protests. The news came days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said leaders of the demonstrations may face execution.
Given the recent unrest, the 48-year-old former crown prince said the timing of his return to Iran was a question of tactics, not safety. "I've always said that I'm willing to die for my country," he said. "But the circumstances have to be ripe."
Pahlavi's father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was installed as Shah in a 1953 CIA-led coup, replacing the country's democratically elected government. U.S. President Barack Obama referred to the episode in his speech to the Muslim world earlier this month. "In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government," Obama said, the first U.S. president to admit the U.S. role in the coup, in a clear overture to Iran.
The Shah ruled for over 25 years and was ousted by Ayatollah Khomenei in the 1979 Islamic revolution, after a year of massive street demonstrations. The crown prince was a teenager taking flight training lessons in Texas at the time.
Many Iranians say they enjoyed more social freedoms under the Shah's rule, such as the freedom for men and women to associate publicly, but poverty, illiteracy, torture and violent suppression of civilian dissent were all widespread.
Supporters of Pahlavi, most of them Iranians in exile, advocate for a democratic parliamentary system with a monarch whose role is to unite Iranian ethnic groups.
"Iran can have a parliamentary democracy, a secular system where there is a clear separation between religion and government," Pahlavi told The Media Line. "This is the moment for Iran. What you see now is 30 years' worth of pent-up frustration that is literally exploding," he said. "Such a regime, no matter how repressive, cannot fight everybody all over the place at the same time, which is why it is important that this broad based resistance keeps going."
Pahlavi said the relative lull in protests over the past few days was not a sign that Iranians had accepted the status quo. "There is a degree of repression that may force a temporary retreat simply to preserve and protect people's lives," he said. "The substance of the demands is not going to die down."
The former crown prince said there were numerous signs that the regime was slowly imploding from within.
"I have spoken to a number of highly-placed, responsible commanders of the security forces and the Revolutionary Guards who, being totally disillusioned, have now said that it's no longer tenable for us to continue serving such a regime that is so blatantly killing our own compatriots," he said.
"Some of these people, they were my age at the time of the revolution," he continued. "They sacrificed their lives in defense of our homeland and for the sake of their citizens. Could they today turn their guns against the children of those they were protecting?"
"I don't believe so, and that's why I'm telling you I have absolute faith that we will succeed, but the question is, how soon and at what cost?" he added.
Pahlavi, whose father was a close U.S. ally, has been increasingly critical of the Obama administration's approach to Iran. "While I applaud the President's strong stance in support for human rights in Iran," he said, "there is also a dilemma in his policy of engagement... I believe it ought to be suspended until there is a stable government that is indeed supported by the Iranian people. If you continue to engage now, not only will it be a slap in the face of Iranians who are in a quest for democracy, but it will also not work."
The former crown prince says Western governments should consider a dual approach. "There has been a monopoly by the regime and its representatives on communication with the outside world," he said. "I've always suggested that there should be a dual track approach, in the spirit of those who want to engage the regime to also engage with the democratic opposition."
"Why do you think most of the slogans written on the streets of Iran are in English?" he asked. "Do they want to talk to each other in the foreign language? That should be a significant signal to the outside world that this is not just an internal debate - we want the outside to show solidarity with us... I always found it a little bit awkward that such a relationship was not created.
ーーーーーーーーーーー
Paris Press Conference: Iran Realities and Perspectives
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Opening Remarks
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your time, and attention to the cry for freedom and democracy in Iran. The past three weeks, my brave compatriots have paid in blood the price of ripping the façade of acceptability of the regime in Iran, and its legitimacy to speak for the people of Iran abroad. The ensuing murderous oppression can silence the streets, and media blackout can reduce world attention. In the West you may see headlines declaring the end of the protests. Some will say a family quarrel inside the Islamic regime is over and Mr. Ahmadinejad will govern Iran for another four year term. But they misread the situation. Although more demonstrations may pop up, and the 10th anniversary of the student uprising on July 9th is a date to watch, phase one, that is election-related mass demonstrations is over. But let me clarify what phase two, which is the phase of national resistance, will look like:
Viewed as a usurper in his second term, Mr. Ahmadinejad's increasing insecurity at home will compel him to invent foreign enemies, further isolating Iran. Compounded with low oil prices, the need for slower liquidity growth to limit spiraling inflation, with massive capital flight and a drained stock market, and a further hemorrhage of skilled managers, just to name a few problems, he will face insurmountable obstacles in running the day to day affairs of government. He will need a minimal cooperation of the people for the ship of state to sail on. Instead he will find burgeoning resistance everywhere, until his government grinds to a halt.
Disappointed and alarmed, influential clerics, important parliamentary factions and other institutions will question his ability to cope and undermine his authority from within the Islamist state. That final paralysis will mark the end of the second phase.
It is hard to predict the third phase. Will a part of the Revolutionary Guards move in to fill the vacuum created by a collapse of authority and a functioning government? If so, the regime will be reduced to an unsustainably narrow base of support, expediting its fall. Will strikes spread and re-energized mass demonstrations sweep the country, compelling the authorities to yield to public pressure toward a new democratic order? No exact scenario can be written at this stage, but the end is clear.
Fast rewind to today, let's acknowledge that the path is perilous. The regime has just appointed a three-man commission to punish those involved in recent demonstrations. The commissioners are men responsible for tortures and summary executions of thousands of my countrymen some twenty years ago. After all of these years, the sounds of rape, torture and dying in Iran's prisons haunt my countrymen. And now those men are back.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am asking you to help put the spotlight of international attention on their dastardly deeds in the weeks ahead. This may be the only way of impeding the cruelty of this regime against those whose only crime was peaceful assembly and expression, including women campaigning against being treated as something halfway between man and animal in their courts. For I fear that out of the daylight of world media, the nightmare of two decades ago will return.
Your second contribution is keeping your political leaders informed about the range and brutality of the oppression in Iran. Your governments have insisted that they would not interfere in Iran's internal affairs. I applaud that. Any such attempt will give the tyrants the excuse they need to paper over their own differences and target anyone struggling for freedom as a foreign agent. But that is not all they do. They are painting every statement in defense of human rights as foreign interference. They benefit from the confusion between the two. It is vital that the free world not fall for such cruel cynicism in the name of realpolitik. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights knows no national boundaries. Its defense is not only a moral issue, but a mutual obligation of all governments who are its signatories.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A movement was born on the 22nd of Khordad in my calendar and 12th of June in yours. It is not Islamic or anti-Islamic, it is not for capitalism or socialism, nor any other ideology or specific form of government. It cares little about historical squabbles before its birth. It is about the sanctity, even more, the sovereignty of the ballot box. By certifying fraudulent election results, the Supreme leader and the Guardian Council have spent their authority against the movement. They stand in the people's way, leaving no bridge behind. The movement may not succeed immediately. It will have its ebbs and flows. It may not control the street for now. But it will not die.
The Spirit of the movement will permeate every home and workplace, public and private, grinding the government to a halt until there is no exit for tyrants, but yielding to the victory of human rights and democracy in Iran.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I stand before you today to ask for your solidarity with my fellow Iranians on their march towards liberty and justice.
必ず英語を読んで訳して下さい。
フリージャーナリスト 桜井 サム
Interview with The Media Line, 28 June
The Media Line
Benjamin Joffe-Walt
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
"I'm not running for office right now," he continued. "My job is to help my compatriots achieve liberty and get rid of this system... if at that time my fellow compatriots want me to play a prominent role in the political scene, they will have to decide that then."
The heir to the throne of the deposed Shah of Iran says he is willing to die for his country and is ready to return and "play a prominent role" in Iranian affairs.
"My moment for the return to my country will come, I assure you," Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, told The Media Line in an exclusive interview from his home in Washington, DC. "I want to be in my homeland. I have been forced into a scenario of exile," he said. "I believe that any Iranian like myself should have the right to live in his own country and contribute the best that one can as an Iranian to the betterment of our country."
Pahlavi's father died in exile after being ousted during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
To many, the likelihood that the Shah's son could become the next leader of Iran is slim, but in the turmoil following the recent elections, the possible resurrection of the Iranian monarchy is once again being discussed.
"I'm not running for office right now," he continued. "My job is to help my compatriots achieve liberty and get rid of this system... if at that time my fellow compatriots want me to play a prominent role in the political scene, they will have to decide that then."
Over the weekend it was revealed that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are hunting for the protesters captured in widely distributed photographs of the demonstrations, and Amnesty International accused the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group, of going into hospitals to arrest activists injured in street protests. The news came days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said leaders of the demonstrations may face execution.
Given the recent unrest, the 48-year-old former crown prince said the timing of his return to Iran was a question of tactics, not safety. "I've always said that I'm willing to die for my country," he said. "But the circumstances have to be ripe."
Pahlavi's father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was installed as Shah in a 1953 CIA-led coup, replacing the country's democratically elected government. U.S. President Barack Obama referred to the episode in his speech to the Muslim world earlier this month. "In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government," Obama said, the first U.S. president to admit the U.S. role in the coup, in a clear overture to Iran.
The Shah ruled for over 25 years and was ousted by Ayatollah Khomenei in the 1979 Islamic revolution, after a year of massive street demonstrations. The crown prince was a teenager taking flight training lessons in Texas at the time.
Many Iranians say they enjoyed more social freedoms under the Shah's rule, such as the freedom for men and women to associate publicly, but poverty, illiteracy, torture and violent suppression of civilian dissent were all widespread.
Supporters of Pahlavi, most of them Iranians in exile, advocate for a democratic parliamentary system with a monarch whose role is to unite Iranian ethnic groups.
"Iran can have a parliamentary democracy, a secular system where there is a clear separation between religion and government," Pahlavi told The Media Line. "This is the moment for Iran. What you see now is 30 years' worth of pent-up frustration that is literally exploding," he said. "Such a regime, no matter how repressive, cannot fight everybody all over the place at the same time, which is why it is important that this broad based resistance keeps going."
Pahlavi said the relative lull in protests over the past few days was not a sign that Iranians had accepted the status quo. "There is a degree of repression that may force a temporary retreat simply to preserve and protect people's lives," he said. "The substance of the demands is not going to die down."
The former crown prince said there were numerous signs that the regime was slowly imploding from within.
"I have spoken to a number of highly-placed, responsible commanders of the security forces and the Revolutionary Guards who, being totally disillusioned, have now said that it's no longer tenable for us to continue serving such a regime that is so blatantly killing our own compatriots," he said.
"Some of these people, they were my age at the time of the revolution," he continued. "They sacrificed their lives in defense of our homeland and for the sake of their citizens. Could they today turn their guns against the children of those they were protecting?"
"I don't believe so, and that's why I'm telling you I have absolute faith that we will succeed, but the question is, how soon and at what cost?" he added.
Pahlavi, whose father was a close U.S. ally, has been increasingly critical of the Obama administration's approach to Iran. "While I applaud the President's strong stance in support for human rights in Iran," he said, "there is also a dilemma in his policy of engagement... I believe it ought to be suspended until there is a stable government that is indeed supported by the Iranian people. If you continue to engage now, not only will it be a slap in the face of Iranians who are in a quest for democracy, but it will also not work."
The former crown prince says Western governments should consider a dual approach. "There has been a monopoly by the regime and its representatives on communication with the outside world," he said. "I've always suggested that there should be a dual track approach, in the spirit of those who want to engage the regime to also engage with the democratic opposition."
"Why do you think most of the slogans written on the streets of Iran are in English?" he asked. "Do they want to talk to each other in the foreign language? That should be a significant signal to the outside world that this is not just an internal debate - we want the outside to show solidarity with us... I always found it a little bit awkward that such a relationship was not created.
ーーーーーーーーーーー
Paris Press Conference: Iran Realities and Perspectives
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Opening Remarks
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for coming. Thank you for your time, and attention to the cry for freedom and democracy in Iran. The past three weeks, my brave compatriots have paid in blood the price of ripping the façade of acceptability of the regime in Iran, and its legitimacy to speak for the people of Iran abroad. The ensuing murderous oppression can silence the streets, and media blackout can reduce world attention. In the West you may see headlines declaring the end of the protests. Some will say a family quarrel inside the Islamic regime is over and Mr. Ahmadinejad will govern Iran for another four year term. But they misread the situation. Although more demonstrations may pop up, and the 10th anniversary of the student uprising on July 9th is a date to watch, phase one, that is election-related mass demonstrations is over. But let me clarify what phase two, which is the phase of national resistance, will look like:
Viewed as a usurper in his second term, Mr. Ahmadinejad's increasing insecurity at home will compel him to invent foreign enemies, further isolating Iran. Compounded with low oil prices, the need for slower liquidity growth to limit spiraling inflation, with massive capital flight and a drained stock market, and a further hemorrhage of skilled managers, just to name a few problems, he will face insurmountable obstacles in running the day to day affairs of government. He will need a minimal cooperation of the people for the ship of state to sail on. Instead he will find burgeoning resistance everywhere, until his government grinds to a halt.
Disappointed and alarmed, influential clerics, important parliamentary factions and other institutions will question his ability to cope and undermine his authority from within the Islamist state. That final paralysis will mark the end of the second phase.
It is hard to predict the third phase. Will a part of the Revolutionary Guards move in to fill the vacuum created by a collapse of authority and a functioning government? If so, the regime will be reduced to an unsustainably narrow base of support, expediting its fall. Will strikes spread and re-energized mass demonstrations sweep the country, compelling the authorities to yield to public pressure toward a new democratic order? No exact scenario can be written at this stage, but the end is clear.
Fast rewind to today, let's acknowledge that the path is perilous. The regime has just appointed a three-man commission to punish those involved in recent demonstrations. The commissioners are men responsible for tortures and summary executions of thousands of my countrymen some twenty years ago. After all of these years, the sounds of rape, torture and dying in Iran's prisons haunt my countrymen. And now those men are back.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am asking you to help put the spotlight of international attention on their dastardly deeds in the weeks ahead. This may be the only way of impeding the cruelty of this regime against those whose only crime was peaceful assembly and expression, including women campaigning against being treated as something halfway between man and animal in their courts. For I fear that out of the daylight of world media, the nightmare of two decades ago will return.
Your second contribution is keeping your political leaders informed about the range and brutality of the oppression in Iran. Your governments have insisted that they would not interfere in Iran's internal affairs. I applaud that. Any such attempt will give the tyrants the excuse they need to paper over their own differences and target anyone struggling for freedom as a foreign agent. But that is not all they do. They are painting every statement in defense of human rights as foreign interference. They benefit from the confusion between the two. It is vital that the free world not fall for such cruel cynicism in the name of realpolitik. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights knows no national boundaries. Its defense is not only a moral issue, but a mutual obligation of all governments who are its signatories.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A movement was born on the 22nd of Khordad in my calendar and 12th of June in yours. It is not Islamic or anti-Islamic, it is not for capitalism or socialism, nor any other ideology or specific form of government. It cares little about historical squabbles before its birth. It is about the sanctity, even more, the sovereignty of the ballot box. By certifying fraudulent election results, the Supreme leader and the Guardian Council have spent their authority against the movement. They stand in the people's way, leaving no bridge behind. The movement may not succeed immediately. It will have its ebbs and flows. It may not control the street for now. But it will not die.
The Spirit of the movement will permeate every home and workplace, public and private, grinding the government to a halt until there is no exit for tyrants, but yielding to the victory of human rights and democracy in Iran.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I stand before you today to ask for your solidarity with my fellow Iranians on their march towards liberty and justice.
