The Return of the Shah

The current crisis in the Middle East, triggered by Hamas' murderous incursion in Israel on 7th October, which killed almost 1,500 innocent civilians, and the terrible Israeli backlash with over 8,425 causalities (many of them children) has plunged the world into a most difficult situation of unforeseeable consequences.

All need to understand history and the law of karma in international affairs. The law by which wrong decisions cause unwanted consequences and so forth.

Western governments, and the US administration particularly, have made many errors in the past, the repercussions of which we are suffering to this day. Let me speak about Iran, the country that backs and finances terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah among others. Concerning Iran, the first major mistake began with the American and British involvement in the 1953 coup against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Mosaddegh had sought to audit the accounts of the Anglo-Iranian Oil company to verify that AIOC was paying contracted royalties to Iran and to limit the company's control over the country's oil reserves. When they declined, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalise Iran's oil industry and expel foreign companies from the country. The insatiable greed of the West and its colonial mentality once again at work, were behind the overthrow of the government and the installation of a new government under General Zahedi, encouraging the young Shah to become an absolute monarch.

It is a fact that the country was modernised over the next 20 years.? The regime created a middle class that became most of the Iranian population. Under the Shah's guidance and until his overthrow, Iran became one of the most advanced and successful countries in the Middle East. It became an industrial and military power and an outstanding scientific hub. Other countries in the region looked towards Tehran as a model for culture and civilisation.?

During those last years, a growing revolutionary movement, inspired by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was on the rise. Many young Iranians aspired to more democratic rule and were lured into backing the revolutionary movement with promises of freedom, democracy, good living conditions and independence from the Western powers. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi should have used this prosperity to counter the revolutionary movement by transforming the regime into a democratic constitutional monarchy with an elected Majlis (parliament). The Carter administration should have encouraged him and thus prevented the revolution that toppled the monarchy on 17 January 1979. This was the second blunder.

We now know why. According to Andrew Scott Cooper, a contributor to the Middle East Journal who had access to the private papers of former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, who worked for both Presidents Nixon and Ford in the 70s, we need to go back to the OPEC summit in Doha in 1976. President Gerald Ford urged the powerful OPEC countries (Iran, Venezuela, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) to restrain their desire to increase oil prices again. The Shah told President Ford that he had to hike prices because the Iranian economy was in trouble.

Mr Scott Copper in a published interview in 2008 (npr.org) goes on to say: "The Saudis made a deal with the Ford administration. Then they went to Doha and broke it. And they said to the rest of the OPEC members, you raise the price of oil if you want to. Not only will we undercut you and sell our oil at a cheaper price, but we’ll also try to flood the market. Now this is a theatrical moment in the history of OPEC. And in fact, what it did was throw the international oil markets into turmoil for the next six months. And this is really the period when we see a financial crisis emerging in Iran."

Not only were the revolutionaries' ambitions never fulfilled, but living conditions for the Iranians today are much worse than they were under the Shah. There is no political freedom, there are severe social restrictions, parliamentary and presidential elections are restricted to Islamists, and political partisanship is controlled by the murderous ayatollahs. They are just another oppressive political regime, harsher than the Shah's had ever been. The Islamic republic immediately became much more repressive than the monarchy ever was. The clerics in Iran hate the West and therefore this hatred dictates every political move, even at the expense of the Iranian people. Since the revolution, the West has been left with a fundamentalist regime that is much more difficult to negotiate with than Mossadegh ever was.

It could be claimed that the third blunder was the decision by President Joe Biden to give Iran access to the $6 billion from a US prisoner swap. While US officials insist that Iran will not be allowed direct access to the funds and that they are only to be used for humanitarian purposes, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has other ideas and has stated that the government will spend the money where it needs it, meaning that funds that are supposed to be used for humanitarian relief will most probably be diverted to nefarious activities in the Middle East, including the funding of Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

The clerics in Teheran are furious that most of the prominent Arab states have diplomatic relations with Israel (the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco) and will do anything to undermine these ties. They hate their people, as does Hamas, who have no concern for the civilian population of Palestine. The government in Teheran must be gloating over the chaos, suffering and far-reaching consequences of Hamas's unpardonable and brazen recent attack on Israel. They are elated that they have managed to divide public opinion all over the West at the price of so much suffering in Palestine and Israel. Suffering that they are immune to, as they subject their own people to it daily.? ??For this reason alone, and more than ever, civil society around the world must unite and celebrate our shared humanity.

In the meantime, to end terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, their source of income should be cut. War is not the answer as it only feeds a spiral of violence. The first step toward the end of these terrorist groups is regime change in Iran, but regime change must come from within.? The only hope for Iranians now is to follow the Gandhian principles of nonviolent struggle to remove the mullahs and invite Prince Reza Pahlavi to return as a constitutional shah with the support of the international community and the United Nations

.According to a published interview with Prince Reza from his Washington exile: “It’s just a matter of time for it to reach its final climax. My compatriots understand that this regime cannot be reformed and must be removed, and they expect the world to show more than just moral support. They expect not to be thrown under the bus in the name of diplomacy and negotiation.”

On the official website of Prince Reza, there is valuable information on his views on the future of Iran after the ayatollah’s regime became part of history. His main message is that he will not rest until Iran has a national, democratic, and elected government of the people and he aims for a referendum and a constituent assembly to decide the future. Whether it is a constitutional secular monarchy or a secular republic.

What is clear is that there is no place in the world of the XXI century for governments that sponsor violence or groups that promote terrorism. We must all unite behind our common humanity and give peace a chance.

https://www.rezapahlavi.org/