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20-02-2023
MUNICH/ TEHRAN: A group of exiled Iranians will increase support for opposition movements in the country so they can continue to pressure the authorities there, amid a crackdown on protests, the last heir to the Iranian monarchy said yesterday.
Iran has been rocked by unrest since the death in police custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman in September after she was detained for flouting a strict dress code. The protests are among the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the revolution.
Eight Iranian exiled dissidents, including Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the toppled Shah, discussed ways of uniting a fragmented opposition earlier this month, amid pro-government events marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution inside the country.
“It’s important we have to have a component of domestic pressure on the regime because external pressure by sanctions weakens the system but it is not enough to do the job,” Pahlavi told media in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“We are to looking at means on how we can support the movement back home,” Pahlavi said. “There is a lot of discussion on maximum pressure and more sanctions, but parallel to maximum pressure there needs to be maximum support.”
The Washington-based Pahlavi said the immediate focus would be to ensure Iranians had access to the Internet, help finance labor strikes through a fund, and find ways to ease money transfers to Iran.
Good, bad and ugly
Unlike in previous years, the Iranian government was not invited to Munich this year as a result of its crackdown, but also due to its support of Russia in the war in Ukraine. Instead, opponents to the Iranian governments were invited, while anti-government rallies took place in Munich.
Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly four decades, since his father, the US-backed shah, was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Opposition to Iran’s clerical government is atomized, with no clear recognized leader. Pahlavi said the priority now was for unity, with in the end a democratic system decided by Iranians. (Int’l News Desk)
