appealing to Israel to help Iranians overthrow the Islamic regime. “Are you going to help us, or are you going to bomb us,” he asked.
Reza also said the Obama Administration has “chickened out” of supporting pro-democracy forces in Iran.
And he proposed that a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission be set up in Iran after the current regime falls to allow loyalists from the current regime to enjoy full amnesty in exchange for publicly acknowledging crimes they have committed.
Pahlavi was in The Hague last month filing a 43-page dossier at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The dossier lists alleged crimes against humanity he says are attributable to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, who would not be included in any amnesty.
The dossier surveys political repression, persecution of gays and rape and torture of dissidents since 2002. In order to charge Khamenehi, the United Nations Security Council would have to refer the case to the ICC. Pahlavi said he would lobby for that.
While in The Hague, he sat down with a reporter from The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s English-language daily, for a long interview.
As in many interviews over the decades, Reza was pressed about his father’s rule. “There were many elements that went wrong,” he said, as he has many times.
“There was excess by some members of the Iranian SAVAK [secret police], there was a lot of repression, there were unnecessary acts such as torture that I never condone and, in fact, condemn,” he said.
But he insisted that his father’s actions need to be seen in the context of the time. Moscow was actively trying to take over through agitation and the ayatollahs were preparing to take power, the Post quoted him as saying.
“Things were not perfect, but most Iranians recognize now that at least we were moving forward, and Iran’s international status reflected this.”
If he ever returns, he said, it will not be thanks to the actions of any American president. The White House under all presidents has “a systemic failure in understanding the lay of the land” when it comes to Iran. The current president is no exception.
“Barack Obama is hell-bent on engaging the Iranian regime just to prove that he’s not George Bush. That doesn’t help the problem. That’s not what people expected in Iran,” Reza said.
“The people of Iran are asking for help, and Obama cares about showing Khamenehi that he can reason with him. That was Jimmy Carter’s mentality in 1979 and that’s still the mentality in 2012.”
Pahlavi called on “Israeli friends to stand up in support of those trying to bring democracy to Iran.”
He said: “Of course, Iranians don’t hate Israel. The regime wants you to think so. Our nations share a biblical relationship since the times of Cyrus, who helped the Jewish people in their hour of need.
“This is our hour of need. We’re asking Israel’s help to free us from our tyrannical regime. Are you going to help us, or are you going to bomb us?” he asked.
The Iranian regime is “an ideological, racist tyranny. It’s a combination of Hitler, the Soviets and apartheid which treats minorities and even women in a fascist manner. Yet the world seems to do nothing about it. This is odd to me,” Reza said.
While adamant about the need to topple the government, Reza makes clear that he is opposed to any military strike at this point.
“In the spectrum between negotiations, sanctions and attack, there is another option that is being ignored, and that is to help the Iranian people in its quest for freedom.” Israel, he said, should do more to engage the Iranian people.
He argues that “a military strike would only delay Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power, and we would still have the same regime in place. In order to fundamentally resolve the issue, we need to support the forces within Iran that want to topple the regime.”
Those forces, he says, are not the reformist leaders of the so-called Green Revolution, Mir-Hossain Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi. “The international community invested much effort and hope in the reformists, but they’re pre-screened, pre-approved loyal opposition.
Pahlavi also complained that Obama “chickened out” on supporting the pro-democracy forces in Iran. That is a common complaint from Republican politicians in the United States because Obama declined to support Musavi and Karrubi during the 2009 post-election protests.
The Obama Administration has provided generic help to human rights and democracy proponents, by such things as making technology available to get around Iranian Internet filters. So, it wasn’t clear what Pahlavi meant by his criticism.
Pahlavi said more and more of the Green Revolution supporters are concluding it is futile to promote change from within because a kind of paramilitary mafia occupies the top of the pyramid and won’t loosen its stranglehold.
Pahlavi envisions a version of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission for post-regime Iran, where most members of the regime establishment would receive amnesty if they confess.
“Those who belong to the establishment need to know that no harm would come to them if they walk away. Otherwise, we end up with a Syria-like reality where those in power hold on for dear life.”
He said his objective of filing the complaint with the ICC is threefold: to serve justice; signal to the Iranian people that they are not alone; and “signal to those who belong to the Iranian mechanism of oppression that it’s the rulers who will be held accountable, not the rank and file.”