Vereinigung der Iranischen(Konstitutionalisten) Monarchisten

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( Surusch)(Di.)17the Mehr mah 2565 ,10th Oktober 2006

The man whose birthright was the Kingdom of Iran stood in the corner of a University of Nebraska at Omaha ballroom Thursday night surrounded by a dozen Iranian-Americans.

Reza Pahlavi, center, is surrounded by Iranian expatriates at a reception Thursday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He gave the keynote address at UNO's Global Studies Conference, saying the United States must stand with Iranians who want freedom.

They wanted to take Reza Pahlavi's photo and shake his hand. They wanted to hear the former crown prince speak about the need for change in their homeland, now ruled by an Islamic theocracy intent on building nuclear weapons.

And speak Pahlavi did. He told the news media, the photo-op crowd and then a packed ballroom that the United States has no coherent foreign policy in Iran.

He said defeating the Iranian regime was infinitely more important than capturing Saddam Hussein or rooting out the Taliban.

He said U.S. leaders must make a choice: Stand with Iranians who want freedom, or sit and watch the entire Middle East crumble.

"The question is, 'Should we even bother promoting democracy?'" he said during the keynote address of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Global Studies Conference.

"It is a simple question. It needs a simple answer."

Pahlavi is the elder son of the late shah of Iran, a CIA-backed monarch who ruled that country until exiled by the 1979 Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The former crown prince has lived in the United States for more than two decades.

In the past year, as Iran began to creep into the American consciousness, he embarked upon a speaking tour that took him repeatedly to Capitol Hill. Thursday it brought him to Omaha.

His message: Democratic revolution in Iran is possible, but only if the Bush administration supports the Iranian people, quits negotiating with the current Iranian government and gets its allies involved.

"He's made this his life's work," said Tom Gouttierre, an expert on the Middle East who heads UNO's Center for Afghanistan Studies. "Regardless of what his positions are, just the fact that he's focusing on it makes a difference for Iran and that region."

Pahlavi said he does not support a U.S. invasion because it would only inflame anti-American sentiment and Iranian nationalist pride.

Instead, he envisions a democratic revolution from within Iran supported by U.S. economic might. The world's superpower can prompt this revolution by attempting to speak directly to the Iranian people using radio, TV and the Internet, he said.

It can also make life difficult for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by imposing targeted sanctions geared to hurt the ruling class but not common Iranians, he said.

"There's only one thing that makes him lose sleep at night," the former crown prince said of Ahmadinejad. "It's the Iranian people rebelling on the streets of Iran."

Pahlavi bristled at the idea that this was comparable to a pre-war view of Iraq that said Iraqis would openly support U.S. involvement and a U.S.-backed democracy.

Iran and Iraq are apples and oranges, he said. Iran has a basis in democracy and a centuries-old tradition of not dividing itself along ethnic lines.

Iraq cannot be pacified until Iran's government is overthrown, he said. Until then, the Iranian government will continue to inflame extremism in other parts of the Middle East, keeping the region unstable and keeping the current Iranian government in power.

"It's like a cancer patient that has a tumor in his stomach, and the doctor decides to amputate his leg," Pahlavi said.

"The leg is Iraq . . . the tumor is in Iran."