Reza Pahlavi Declares New Nuclear Offer a Lose-Lose Prospect for Islamic Republic

Thursday June 8, 2006 - 8:15 am ET

PARIS, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Reza Pahlavi of Iran, having met earlier in the day with 39 French Parliamentarians, held a press conference at the Foreign Press Club (Le Cape), during which he declared "the latest offer made to Tehran a lose-lose proposition for the Islamic Republic."

Indicating that the new offer, initiated by the US administration, had shown that the regime had put itself in an impossible position, he explained "if the regime accepts to concede and put seals back on its centrifuges, permanently halting its enrichment program, it will loose the main thrust of its propaganda." This, he added, "would unravel the ideological glue that keeps its Islamist allies and security forces together." Alternatively, he argued, "if the Islamist regime rejected the new US offer, its already anemic economy will face an unsustainable, back-breaking shock."

Fielding questions in French, English and his mother tongue, Persian, the 45 year old political leader pointed out that the regime had already, repeatedly, rejected any chance of accepting IAEA seals disabling its centrifuges.

Missing from the Iran debate, he argued, is a credible and accurate understanding, by the international community, of the true nature and goal of the clerical regime. "The raison d'etre of the regime, as codified in its constitution, is to spread the 'rule and law of God' throughout the world," underscoring that "the regime's hope at winning an equal seat at the negotiating table is for grandstanding against the free world, not to join it."

Accentuating that lack of understanding, he predicted that the new US offer, in fact, stands a good chance of being viewed as a vindication of the most hostile elements within the regime. Tehran will deduce that while the mild-mannered former President Khatami could not manage to engage the U.S., "Mr. Ahmadinejad's harsh and venomous rhetoric brought the toughest US President, in the life of the Islamic Republic, to the table." The will enable Iran's ambitious clerical revolutionaries to use "the lesson that harshness and radical talk pays, trumpeting it to regional radical Islamists, encouraging them to chide moderate leaders as spineless cronies of the West."

On Wednesday morning, Reza Pahlavi was received by 39 members of the National Assembly of France where he discussed issues relating to Iran, specifically the clerical regime, its conflict with the Iranian people and most recent developments in opposition politics. Later, he also met with former Prime Minister Eduard Balladur, currently President of the Foreign Relations Committee of National Assembly of France.

Reza Pahlavi is leading a campaign of political defiance against the radical Islamist regime of Iran. He is the former Crown Prince of Iran, an accomplished jet fighter pilot, having graduated from the U.S. Air Force training program, and has a degree in political science from the University of Southern California. Author of Winds of Change, The Future of Democracy in Iran, he is married and father to three daughters.

Source: Secretariat of Reza Pahlavi