COUNTRIES in the region are being urged to support Iranian opposition groups in their effort to bring down the government in Tehran.
Exiled Iranian Crown Prince His Imperial Highness Reza Pahlavi said Iran’s current leaders were unlikely to end their policy of fomenting unrest in neighbouring countries and fuelling regional instability.
He said Iran’s existing government “feeds on chaos and disharmony” and claimed the only way to stop Iranian interference in other countries was complete regime change.
“Regional focus should really shift from countering the venomous games of the regime, under the status quo, to lending a hand to the people of Iran to rid them of this cancer that has occupied our homeland,” he said.
He warned that as long as the current regime remained in place, Iran would continue to undermine regional security.
“Do not expect this regime to change its ways or its nature, just as a serpent can not change its temperament,” he said.
“An effective tool in sustaining and prolonging its ability to survive has been the regime’s reliance on regional havoc, direct interference in the affairs of others and through its support for radicalism.
“The regime has calculated that it stands to benefit from the contrast drawn between a chaotic Iraq and Afghanistan versus the relative security its police state offers the people of Iran.
“So the regime feeds on chaos and disharmony. Naturally, the Iranian people are fully aware of this, find it counter to our historic role but don’t have a say in it. The regime is brutally suppressive.”
Meanwhile, Prince Reza described Iran’s “fingerprints” as being all over unrest in Bahrain and disturbances in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, saying the regime in Tehran did not even try to hide its role.
“It is written in its constitution, it is espoused by its leadership, it is articulated by its military and political operatives,” he said.
Therefore he said Iranian support for Shi’ite militants in Bahrain - through the provision of weapons, equipment, training and funding - was unlikely to stop.
“So long as clerics rule Iran, their regional tactics and support for militants throughout the region will remain in place,” he stated.
However, he predicted regime change in Tehran would pave the way for a new era of co-operation between Iran and its Arab neighbours - highlighting water supplies and depleting energy resources as key issues requiring regional collaboration,
“Whatever the final form Iran’s future secular democracy takes, Iran will be committed to reinstating regional stability based on mutual-respect and peaceful coexistence, as we had before,” he pledged.
“The elimination of clerical-inspired regional crisis and fomentation of militancy, as we have witnessed under this (Iranian) regime, has no historic root in Iran.
“A pluralistic, democratic Iranian government will be focused on pursuing its national interests and primarily dedicated to bringing Iran out of the economic, social and political ruin this regime has caused, not interfering in other countries’ affairs.”
Prince Reza described peace and stability as the “best ingredient for progress and prosperity”.
“We can all benefit from multiple areas of co-operation and economic development,” he added.
He also highlighted historic commercial and family ties between people of Iran and other countries in the region and accused Iran’s current leaders of not representing the “historic sentiments of the Iranian people”.
“Iranians and their neighbours generally have much more in common than not,” said Prince Reza.
“So I have nothing but confidence that a future government that is truly representing the will of the Iranian people shall eliminate all belligerence and hostility in favour of friendship and co-operation.”