Re: The US and Prince Reza Pahlavi

From:  "Sam Ghandchi" <ghandchi@yahoo.com>
Date:  Wed Apr 3, 2002  11:29 pm
Subject:  Re: The US and Prince Reza Pahlavi

http://www.ghandchi.com/130-USPahlavi.htm

Right after I posted my above article, I listened to Prince Reza Pahlavi's interview.

http://www.rezapahlavi.org/audiovideo/foxapril.html

I am glad that he resisted any US attack plan on Iran, even when interviewers presented that option to him under the cover of arming Iranian people, and he spoke in no uncertain terms for nonviolent struggle to replace IRI. But I think he should speak clearly to condemn the dictatorship and Savak of the past monarchy and to clearly separate himself from monarchy altogether. And although I saw in this interview speaking for secularism, I think he needs to emphasize *full* secularism, which as I have noted before, is missing in monarchy's 1906 Constitution, which has the veto of 5 mojteheds for any law to be accepted as the law of the land, and this is a huge block to separation of state and religion, and shows Iranian monarchy is not secular.  Also Prince Reza Pahlavi needs to speak for a republic in Iran and not to go back to the nonsecular monarchy of the past, which as all democratic forces and people have shown time after time, is way way behind the demands of our pro-Democracy movement, and nobody would buy it and pushing monarchy on Iran, can only lead to a civil war, regardless of who tries to push it on our on our people, and this is one more reason that monarchy is the worst legacy anybody can think of as the pancea for Iran.  We simply want a *secular* republic with no ifs and buts.

-Sam Ghandchi
April 3, 2002