RESTORING DEMOCRACY IN IRAN

An interesting op-ed appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 1^st January, written by Aidin Panahi, an Iranian/American research professor. The article, entitled ‘How will opposition groups shape post-Islamic regime Iran?’ systematically trashed the main democratic opposition group which seeks to overthrow the tyrannical theocratic regime and restore freedom, democracy and justice to Iran’s 91 million beleaguered people. Ms Panahi trotted out the same old tired and worn-out litany of propaganda used by the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS) to traduce the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and to burnish the reputation of Reza Pahlavi, the self-styled Iranian Crown Prince. As the author of a contemporary history on Iran entitled ‘Dictatorship & Revolution’, I find myself puzzled and astonished by Ms Panahi’s absurd comments.

Despite having played no role in opposition to the mullahs, Pahlavi clearly has visions of a return to the peacock throne. His attempts to resuscitate the Iranian monarchy have been depressingly predictable. Having fled into exile when his father was deposed in the 1979 revolution, Pahlavi has lived a life of great wealth and opulence ever since, although he has never been entirely transparent on the source of his vast fortune. In exile, Pahlavi has failed able to assemble supporters and form a cohesive group or organization, underlining the fact that the monarchy is a spent force that belongs to the past and has nothing to offer for the future of Iran.

In her op-ed Ms. Panahi claims that Reza Pahlavi has a plan to restore a secular democracy in Iran with full observance of human rights, in a post-mullah monarchy. But the self-proclaimed ‘King’ has inflamed hostility in Iran by stating his would-be support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the theocratic regime’s reviled equivalent of the Gestapo. During a talk show with Iran International TV in 2018, he said: “I am in bilateral contacts with the (regime’s) military, the IRGC and the Basij. We are communicating. They are signalling their readiness and expressing willingness to align with the people.”

It is the warmongering IRGC and their paramilitary Basij, who have shot, arrested, tortured, raped and brutalized opponents of the regime at home and abroad for four decades. They are blacklisted as a foreign terrorist organization in America and Canada. For Reza Pahlavi to suggest a role for the IRGC in a future Iran, is an outrageous indication of the total illegitimacy of the monarchy. It is like Winston Churchill recommending a role for the Gestapo in postwar Germany after the defeat of the Nazis.  No wonder during recent nationwide protests that swept across Iran, thousands of protesters could be heard chanting: “Down with the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader (Khamenei)” and “No to the Shah! No to the mullahs”.

Ms. Panahi repeats almost verbatim the slanders and smears that the MOIS has churned out for decades. Having failed to annihilate the main constituent part of the opposition NCRI, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), during the horrific massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, the mullahs launched a campaign of demonization and terror against them. Focusing their attention on elements of the Western media, manipulating key journalists to embrace a smear campaign against the MEK, while trotting out the Iranian regime’s greatest hits like calling them an ‘Islamic-Marxist cult’ and claiming that they are a terrorist organization. The fact that the MEK now boasts a huge entourage of prominent international political supporters from left to right of the political spectrum, gives the lie to all these ludicrous assertions and weary propaganda fed into the system by the MOIS and willing cyphers like Ms. Panahi.

Readers of the Jerusalem Post may like to know that 137 former world leaders signed a joint statement of solidarity with the people of Iran, showing their support for the NCRI and the MEK. Signatories to the letter included former US Vice President Mike Pence and 50 former Presidents, 47 former Prime Ministers, one former Chancellor, and nine other former Heads of State from across the world. Two former Presidents of the European Commission and three Nobel Peace Prize laureates were also among the signatories. It is this sort of international support that terrifies the fascist mullahs, who see the MEK as the greatest threat to the continuation of their venally corrupt and vicious regime with good reason.

Over the past 46 years, the MEK has been the first and only serious opposition movement calling for the entire theocracy’s overthrow and advocating for regime change at the hands of the Iranian people themselves. They are organized and internationally recognized with a nationwide network of Resistance Units risking their lives daily to end the mullahs’ tyranny. The MEK opposes all forms of dictatorship, be it the mullahs’ theocratic regime or the dictatorship of the Shah and it yearns for a secular, democratic republic, where freedom and justice have been restored, torture and executions abolished, the nuclear threat outlawed, and state-sponsored terrorism eliminated. In 1979 the Iranian people jumped out of the Shah’s frying pan and into the mullahs’ fire. They should not be allowed to jump back into the frying pan. They have suffered tyranny and repression for more than 120 years and now crave peace, freedom, justice and democracy.