Israel should work with the Iranian people who oppose the Islamic Republic to overthrow the regime in Tehran, since fighting its terror proxies alone will not bring peace to the region, Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said on Friday.
“War is being waged on you from the south, from the north, from the east, and from a propaganda war in the West,” Pahlavi told the Israeli American Council summit in Washington. “All of this is being coordinated, supported and directed by the Islamic Republic.
“Reacting to each of these threats independently, as if they were independent threats, will leave you in a state of perpetual vulnerability,” he said. “Merely fighting Hamas or Hezbollah will not deliver security for Israel or America. You will be simply reacting and your people will never have peace.”
In his address, the eldest son of the late shah of Iran, who lives in Virginia, said that the world was on the “precipice of history,” and that the time was now to send the Islamic regime that has ruled Iran for four and a half decades to the “ash heaps of history.
“The Iranian people stand with Israelis and Americans because before the Islamic Republic came for you, it came for us,” he said. “So trust us when we say no deal can be made with such a regime and no accommodation with its proxies.”
‘Solidarity no longer sufficient’
“My friends, in the past year Iranians and Israelis have stood in solidarity. But solidarity is no longer sufficient,” Pahlavi said.
The 63-year-old made a historic visit to Israel last year, before the outbreak of the war, and has been an outspoken advocate of strengthening ties with Israel and Diaspora Jewry.
“As we stand on this precipice together, the question I put before you today is simple. Are you ready to do more than stand together—are you ready to act together?” he said on Friday.
Pahlavi said that the people of Iran who oppose the Islamic regime are fighting against it every day, with no support from the outside world.
‘They have sent me here with a message: They are not only fighting to free themselves, but to free the Middle East and the world from the scourge of this evil regime.”
He called for a “collaborative, coordinated campaign” by the Jewish state and the Iranian people seeking to overthrow the regime.
“We need to reinstate maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic,” Pahlavi said. “We need to offer maximum support to the people of Iran. And we need to facilitate maximum defections from the regime so that we can peacefully transition from this criminal dictatorship to the secular democracy the Iranian people are fighting for.”
True peace would prosper by overthrowing the regime, while the alternative is continued terrorism, he said.
“If we fail to act and the Islamic Republic remains in power, none of that will be possible,” the prince said. “But if we work together, we can secure prosperity and dignity for our people and stability and security for our world and expand from the Abraham Accords to the ‘Cyrus Accords.’
“As we stand on the precipice of history, we do so united in our values and our vision. But now it is time to act,” Pahlavi said.
