(Munich) “Cracks” exist within the Iranian regime and will come to light as Ayatollah Khamenei’s power is reduced, Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, said on Saturday in Munich. ‘Iran.
“The total control of (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei makes it almost impossible, for those who are closely associated with him, to take a stand against him”, admitted the one who embodies one of the multiple components of the opposition to the regime of the Islamic Republic.
But according to “testimonies that we receive and leaks of information […]there will be cracks that will become more apparent, ”he assured journalists on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich, where members of the opposition were invited, but no representative of the Iranian government.
The Supreme Leader “is trying to push his son (Mojtaba Khamenei, editor’s note) to succeed him” and this transition “will considerably weaken” his support, he assured, thus evoking the need to use these internal aspirations in Iran to change of constitution.
The country has been shaken since September by a wave of demonstrations following the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for not respecting the very strict dress code imposed on women in this country.
Since then, the regime has faced unprecedented protest, which has been violently repressed. And two former leaders, former President Mohammad Khatami and ex-Prime Minister Mir Hossein Moussavi, called for reforms in early February.
Mr. Moussavi notably suggested a “free and fair referendum on whether or not to draft a new constitution”, deeming the current power structure “unsustainable”.
He thus hardened his criticisms of power, argued Reza Pahlavi, evoking a recent past where the former head of government positioned himself as in “the loyal opposition, within the framework of the existing constitution”.
‘No more defections’
Several factions of the very divided Iranian diaspora have been working on the drafting of a charter. It aims to bring together their points of agreement to lead to the establishment of a transition council responsible for preparing elections and drafting a new constitution.
The son of the Shah, overthrown in 1979 by the Islamic revolution, reports in Iran a vast “grey spectrum” of government officials tempted by change, but for the time being reluctant to express it publicly.
“The question is to know how many of them will start to defect” in Khamenei’s direct entourage, he adds, convinced that “the dynamic is going towards more […] of defections”.
The opposition in exile, for its part, must offer them solutions, via an “open door policy, of maximum inclusion”, summarizes the son of the Shah. If these leaders “adopt the values and principles (of the charter, editor’s note) as a basis for cooperation, we can broaden the spectrum to include more people”.
But a positive outcome will also, he argued, require political and judicial work to reserve a place for these members of the current regime in the next system. “Everyone has the right to a second chance,” he observes in this regard.
Preparing for the after
“There are already established forms of traditional justice. What do we do with people who have acted like criminals in the position of rulers? We cannot reject those who seek justice,” he said.
And to evoke the all-powerful body of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), a force considered as the ideological army of the regime.
“We need to be able to say, you can come back into the military, or some form of reserve force or other civilian roles. All of this is currently being discussed,” he explains. “There is a strategy, a plan” to prepare for the post-Islamic Republic.
Reza Pahlavi is far from unanimous. He is accused of not having distanced himself enough from paternal authoritarianism, of lacking transparency on the family fortune and of remaining inactive in the face of the aggressiveness of the monarchists on social networks. But his position in the face of the demonstrations earned him the esteem of the protest movement.
“To say that my father was king and that whatever happened I have to take responsibility for it is a kind of irrational proposition,” the 62-year-old man who lives in the United States said in Munich.
“If I had the option between a secular republic and the monarchy, I would choose the republic”. But “you cannot eliminate an option if part of the nation wants to discuss it”.
And to conclude: “What will happen in the end, I leave the constituent assembly (future, editor’s note) to debate”. He will not aim, it is promised, for any function, preferring to retain “absolute freedom of expression”.