Reza Pahlavi, the one-time heir apparent to the Peacock Throne who pledged to work with then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to build a counter-revolutionary army in 1982 (a plan that was aborted after the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon forced Sharon’s resignation), has just tweeted: “In the history of humanity, never has there been a government that was able to resist a unified and committed people.” He has first-hand knowledge of this belief, of course.
“who pledged to work with then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to build a counter-revolutionary army in 1982”
Really? Wasnt he only 22 at the time?
outstanding posting. thank you.
Yeah, he was pretty young, but he still had aspirations for kingship!
great response iPouya
When Reza Pahlavi was 22, the regime of the butcher mullahs had already purportedly killed 100,000 members of the Mujahedin Khalq, the Tudeh (Communist) Party of Iran, Jebeh Melli (Social Democrats), Jewish leader (Elghanayan: a huge philanthropist), the Bahaii faith, innocent public servants of the previous government (Rohani), honorable patriotic soldiers of Iran, who never opened fire on the people and never ordered anyone to do so (Generals Jahanbani and Khosrodad)…..not to mention completely innocent people like the driver who drove the wretched khomeini to the airport the day he was kicked out of the country…the driver, who was ordered to drive him to the airport, who by Khomeini’s own admission was polite and kind….and again not to mention the Iran-Iraq War…for which RP volunteered….that was the state of Iran when RP was 22.
Today, Iran is burning, her youth being viciously cut down by the same regime who was wrecking havoc when RP was 22.
Now you are spewing venom about RP when he was 22? I wish he had made a deal with Sharon. He would have held free elections has he has said for 32 years to anyone who has the decency to listen. I wish I could have made a deal with anyone to free Iran. HELP. What were you doing for Iran when you were 22? I was having fun on campus…. occasionally protesting and writing a letter…
RP was meeting with Sharon to figure something out. If he had (figured something out)…people would not be dying on the streets of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfanhan, va Shomal….Shut up about RP already and do something positive. 🙂
No one is contesting the history you just spelled out, nor is anyone disputing the Khomeini regime’s human rights record, but the point I was making in the post is that Reza Pahlavi has personal experience behind his own tweet about regime’s unable to survive in the face of a united and determined populace. As crown prince, his hopes to continue his father’s misguided policies were dashed. He has zero credibility to talk about freedom in Iran, as do the clerics. Lets be consistent please.
sanam1
Mubarak figured something out with Sharon. He figured out to build a dictatorship supported by Israel that would not only suppress Egyptians, but would be open to torture by extradition.
RP’s dad promised free and fair elections but after 35 years, Iran was a dictatorship.
RP has never denounced his father’s actions.
Why should we believe him? Because he met with Israel like Mubarak?
I know your answer, you are just going to bring up IR, but won’t answer anything about RP and his damn family. Don’t forget that we have the IR because of the Pahlavi rule. Just because the IR is bad, it does not make the Pahlavi’s good.
Well said.
Again, RP was 17 when he left Iran….he was 19 when he lost his father. If you are suggesting that ones policy choices are transfered through DNA then RP is doomed. I do not believe in such inevitability. My parents are very right wing and I am very left wing. Does that confuse you?
During the time of the late Shah there was much that was wrong….there was much that was right. On the wrong side was lack of total freedom of speech….but let us remember that according to Amnesty Inter’l during the 36 year reign of the Shah less than 400 people were executed for “political crimes” including espionage (for which we still execute people in the US)….remember the Shah pardoned the people who attempted to assassinate him, Khomeini killed the driver who drove him to the airport… so far, this year alone, the regime has ADMITTED to executing in excess of 120 people. What was right was women had extensive rights they do not have today…and even symbolically much to the disgust of the clergy the Queen was in line for the throne as Regent. A woman. The Shah took land away from the bastard clergy and gave it to the people who worked the land.
I am not an apologist for the previous government….but I do know those days were better than these days by far….and I have spent time with Iran’s young refugees in Iraq and Turkey…and none of them are saying Death to the Shah or whining about 32 years ago…or bad mouthing RP…they hate this regime…in fact my friend they are actively looking for people like you. They say no one in Iran admits to saying “Marg bar Shah….Khomeinii Imam” Their joke is as far as we know…only 3 Palestinians were chanting “Marg bar Shah” lol
As for denouncing his father’s actions and policies….READ what he has written.
I would personally recommend to him not to renounce unless he can get credit for the unprecedented growth in Iran’s economy, literacy rate, improvements in maternal and child health, diversification of land ownership, the national electrical grid, the university system, the hundreds of thousands of low income families whose children were sent to American and European Universities etc. etc.
Facts and cognitive dissonance are a bitch.
As far as having “zero credibility to talk about freedom”….well, you just confuse me… here I am applauding the Libyan Ambassadors leaving their posts in protests….and calling on Iran’s diplomats to do the same…
Here you are saying the ONLY opposition leader who did NOT collaborate with this regime, who does not have blood on his hands, who did not serve the vicious mullahs of Iran…who made a deal with NO ONE (your unsubstantiated rumors not withstanding)… is disqualified to speak about freedom. Without reading anything he has written (clearly).
So tell me who your father is and I will better understand why you are so bitter and why YOU don’t believe in RP’s democratic right to speak and the Iranian’s right to choose and not to be stuck in the sad year 1978. 🙁
Dear PB—Please tell me what questions you have about RP and his policies and I will be happy to answer. As to his family, if it relates to Iran, today and tomorrow, I am happy to answer. If it is gossip, I am no more interested than I am in gossip about Moussavi, Kahroubi, Rafsanjani. etc. Sepas. S1
You assume much.
First, RP made a pact w Ariel Sharon. This is not a rumor. See Ramazani’s book titled “Revolutionary Iran.” He may have been young and dumb, but some things are unforgivable and unforgettable.
Two, I never said he didn’t have the democratic right to speak out. He has the right to say whatever he wants just as I have the right to make fun of this clown. Do you follow?
Yes, Karroubi has far more credibility than RP. He’s in Iran, disavowing the regime from within, and standing in the face of death threats.
RP has not disavowed his father, and is paraded on TV where he talks about freedom from afar. Who is he to talk about freedom? He is nobody. He needs to first return the money his family plundered from Iran.
You listen to him not bc of what he says, bc there are far more people saying more important things and saying it where it matters most, in Iran. You follow him bc of this sickness that many possess: fard parastee.
Again, you assume much. I HAVE read RP’s work, especially that joke of a book “Winds of Change” where it seems like he’s campaigning for a future post in a post-clerical Iran. RP is utterly irrelevant in Iran. You know this simply by listening to the people even in the Green Movement where they chant slogans such as “marg bar setamgar, che shah bashe, che rahbar.”
What RP loyalists need to do is stop comparing this regime w the royalist regime, stop comparing crap to vomit. It’s not a competition nor do we have to choose between the two.
You have a right to your opinion–you do not have a right to your own facts.
The islamic regime has taken the Pahlavis to court in 3 different countries Switzerland, England and the United States….stating they have evidence of the “billions” in their possession stolen from the people.
They lost their case in all 3 countries. All they could prove was assets that belonged to the Pahlavi Foundation which were not in dispute. These were turned over to the mullahs in another shameless act….and were recently confiscated by the US Department of Treasury.
No Pahlavi has ever, ever appeared on Forbes list of richest….but Rafsanjani and many mullahs have.
Do any of these FACTS affect your thinking on the money issue.
Reza Pahlavi never, ever, ever, made a deal with any Israelis…it just did not happen. Whoever says it, needs to prove it or admit they lied. Just because they write it in a book does not make it true.
Financial Times just reported Shah took $36 Billion out of Iran in 1978. That makes his wealth then, equal to Bill Gates wealth today??….when Iran’s entire GNP was a TOTAL of $120B during the 55 year reign of the Pahlavi dynasty.
Just because they wrote the fiction…it does not make it so…
Please, please tell me what were you doing for the people of Iran when you were 22. Stop kicking people who are doing something for what they did or did not do—-which you have no way of knowing except through books written by their enemies.
Do something to unite us against the regime. Kahroubi reaches out RP. Why don’t you get off 30 years ago and join us in this century and HELP!
You are clearly too smart and too young to be “fighting the fights of yesterday instead of the battles of tomorrow” as Nelson Mandela would say.
What is your evidence that he didn’t make a pact w Sharon? At least I source a reputable scholar who teaches at a reputable university in the US. Am I supposed to believe it’s not true simply bc you’re saying it?
Pahlavi took $36 billion out? Wow, I didn’t know that’s how much. That’s what I call plunder. Thanx for bringing that to my attention.
In terms of doing something for Iran, that’s just it, RP hasn’t done anything but live off his money his family stolen from Iran, occasionally come on TV to fan his ego and say some stuff that no one takes seriously except for some people who conveniently gloss over the past and deflect attention for the monarchy’s treachery by focusing on the IRI’s human rights abuses, which are countless of course.
He’s been in exile for most of his life. My parents were in Iran for most of theirs and when they went back to Iran after 20 years, they didn’t recognize much. Things have changed and they’ve done so rapidly. Why would I look to RP for leadership when there are people in Iran who know Iran, weren’t waiting in line to be the next plunder of Iran, and are in the frontlines?
To quote my friend, this “chap ain’t no champ!”
I am under no obligation to “prove” a non event. And yes this is the first time a professor at a reputable university got something wrong? Let him “prove” it happened.
I have heard nothing but well orchestrated lies about RP over the last 30 years repeated by well-intentioned but highly gullible people…to wit your reaction to $36B. Math is clearly not your strong suit.
Honestly, I take back what I said about you being smart etc. You are clearly a bigot of sorts…not interested in facts…only in spewing the venom of the IRI….i am sorry for you, me, RP and Iran.
Take care of yourself…let’s talk when you have had time to read and think on this issue some more.
Herein lies the problem of the Iranian community. Whenever someone disagrees w you, they resort to childish and personal attacks to try to discredit your opinion. I’m sorry, but my opinion is not informed by the monarchical or Islamist regime’s narrative, but my own based on my own studies.
I mean it’s so typical to say, “lets talk when you’ve read more,” implying that you know the truth bc of what you’ve read and no one is entitled to an informed opinion contrary to yours bc they haven’t read what you’ve read. I’m sorry, but that’s just arrogant.
If you would like to continue to discuss things here, I invite you to offer your opinion, whatever it may be, and listen to other opinions, disagree if you like, but in a respectable fashion.
I think it’s important that all opinions are heard here and I invite you to speak out, but please, we all need to practice tolerating other people’s opinions. I have long joked that the IRI is a reflection of segments of Iranian society that are intolerant to other people’s opinions.
I apologize if I provoked you but this entire discussion and the way it was carried out is a microcosm of larger problems in our society – our inability to disagree without being disrespectful.
The purpose of discussion is to advance ones’ thinking. If you have taken a position and the FACTS won’t deter you then there is no purpose to the discussion.
I did not say what I said out of disrespect. I said what I said because as Socrates said I am willing to teach but the student must be willing to learn. I know I am no Socrates….but you have clearly taken a position on Iran and RP and unless and until you read some of his writings and listen to his speeches with an open heart and an open mind you and I can never find common ground.
I am devoted to the liberation and future of Iran….to that end I cannot spend time with well meaning but intransigent people. I assume you have a leader or leaders in mind that you believe are preferable. I am in search of unity… that is why I don’t attack opponents of the regime. Even if they are not my cup of tea.
BTW, RP of I never met with Sharon to discuss an army or anything else when he was 22 or any other age…telephonically, in person or otherwise. The entire episode is a lie.
A wise one once said: When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?
Be omid Iran abad o azad. 🙂
I understand the Socrates point, but we are all teachers AND learners, including you. We don’t have to agree, I certainly don’t w you, but we have to agree to listen to one another and be respectful. In other words, and Im sorry if Im being cliche, but “be the change you want to see in the world.”
I mean, you are equally intransigent. To say that only your facts matter and only you are right and I am wrong bc I don’t know what you know, or disagree w you, is nothing short of the authoritarian mentality that has long plagued our country, before 1979 and after.