Exiled prince: Israel should help Iranians topple regime
Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi says ousting terrorist regime more effective than strike on nuke facilities
"If Israel wages war against Iran now, this will cause a kind of tension with the Jewish people that had not existed since the time of Cyrus the Great," he told the Dubai-based television network.
Related articles:
- Netanyahu skeptical Iran would end nuclear program
Iran attack decision nears, Israeli elite locks down
Op-ed: Bibi prepares to strike Iran?
Pahlavi noted that a military strike would not annihilate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, but would only slow it down.
"At the end of the day the priority should be, and the whole world will agree, that the entire Iranian regime has to go," he stressed.
The exiled prince warned against a US-led strike on Iran as well, equating the scenario to the Iraq war, which he said was a mistake.
'Sanctions counterproductive'
Pahlavi claimed that the US-led economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iran are counterproductive, saying the international community should take measures that support the Iranian people.
"We rarely see resistance movements that do not enjoy a degree of international support like what happened in East Europe when the Soviet Union collapsed," he said.
"Iranians have made it very clear that they do not want the current regime, but they are unarmed and will not use violence, so civil disobedience becomes the best means of confrontation. When diplomacy fails and war becomes an unfavorable option, people need to put pressure on the regime from inside."
Pahlavi said that bringing down the Iranian regime would benefit not only the Iranians but the entire world as well.
"The current regime has proven its hostility and its ability to spread terrorism and extremism."
'Ayatollah should be prosecuted'
Pahlavi also called for the prosecution of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, noting that the case would first have to go through the UN Security Council because Iran hasn't signed the Rome Statute.
He said that while the indictment of the supreme leader should not absolve his aides who might be involved in crimes, Khamenei remains the "main culprit."
The crown prince has been residing in the US since the Islamic Revolution replaced his father's regime with a clerical one in 1978. He admitted to the downsides of his father’s rule, but stressed they were not to be compared with the cruelty of the current regime in Tehran.
"At the time of the Shah, there was a problem with taking part in politics, yet all other rights were granted to the people. Now, Iranians are stripped of their basic freedoms. Women and ethnic and religious minorities are suffering greatly."
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
