The elder son of the late shah of Iran said Wednesday he wanted to serve as a "catalyst" for forces favorable to democratic change in his country. "This is not about me," Reza Pahlavi said at a news conference in Washington.
"This is not about the past. This is not about the monarchy."
He called upon the international community to support change in Iran and stop dealing with what he referred to the "theocratic regime" in power in Tehran.
Pahlavi said he believed forces of change were on the rise in Iran, however "the world is sort of lagging behind as to where the Iranian people are today", AFP reported.
A son of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was forced to flee the Islamic Republic of Iran in the midst of the 1979 revolution and died of cancer one year later, Pahlavi said he remained active in the exile community and was in touch daily by telephone or e-mail with Iranian intellectuals and young people.
Pahlavi added he wanted Iran to be a secular democracy and favored holding a national referendum to determine the nature of the future regime.
"The political awareness is at its highest level it's ever been," Pahlavi said, adding that the Iranian people were no longer fearful of authorities.
Furthermore, he denounced the government in Iran as a threat to the world community.
"The time has come again for the world to realize that the regime in Iran is not to be trusted," he said. "It has it's own agenda. It is not committed to peace. It is not committed to stability. It will stop at nothing, even if it means using nuclear weapons, to survive”. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
