Transcript:

– The U.S Navy on Friday announced it will increase the number of Patrols in the Strait of Hormuz following the seizure of two ships by Iran.

Now, dozens of former top U.S. diplomats are calling on President Biden to cease all diplomacy with Iran.

Last Monday Iran’s brutal regime hanged two men on charges of blasphemy as hundreds of executions have been carried out this year, following Nationwide anti-government protests over the death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini last September.

Despite this, Iran has been selected to serve as chair of the Human Rights Council Social Forum at the United Nations next year, if you can believe that one!

Joining us right now with more on all of this is his Royal Highness, the exiled Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi.

Your highness thanks very much for being with here this morning.

– Good morning, Maria and, first and foremost, allow me to wish happy Mother’s Day to all our viewers. But, it also comes with sad feelings of so many mothers Iran today mourning the loss of their children who were either executed or murdered.

– Well, thank you for saying that and our hearts go out to those people and the strength and conviction that women of Iran have had. I I am just behind them all the way.

Tell me where you see things headed now. Are we at a point of Revolution again?

– We are. it’s been months.

The question is what will make the balance tilt fully in the in favor of the Iranian people, in other words, push the regime over the brink of the precipice.

It takes some factors, I would say.

The first Factor would be maximum pressure in the sense of the continuing of economic sanctions, provided, of course, they are implemented, which this Administration has yet to prove that they’re really pushing for full sanctions.

That would bring more pressure on the regime.

In that context, putting the IRGC on the list of terrorist groups will further cripple the regime in its means of having more income to fuel their War Machine and their proxies in the region, from Syria to Lebanon and elsewhere and there are some other means to even bring more pressure.

Then, there’s an element of Maximum support; something that has been advocated for years.

How could you actually empower the Iranian people?

Internet access, funding strike funds.

An idea around strike fund and the way it could be funded is something I’ve been floating around.

If there’s a legal way to repurpose frozen assets of the regime, which is after all the Iranian people’s money, and repurpose that towards funding the strike funds.

That’s all of a sudden complete change of balance of power between a regime that is trying to repress these people and the citizenry that is longing to be free.

– Well, I think this is a great point that you make. The strike funds. How would those in charge get access to that and be able to repurpose that? I mean, the money is where?

– Well, the money is actually frozen. This is an asset of the regime, and for that matter, additional assets that could be frozen as a result of the IRGC being sanctioned on a terrorist list. But, that money can be then accessed and used. The question is there is a legal way to repurpose it. There’s been some precedence, with I think I believe in the case of Venezuela and some other cases, too.

The point is that we are not asking for American or French or British taxpayers to fund these funds. This is the actual money that belongs to the Iranian people, in the first place. We should take it out of the regime’s hands and put it back in the people’s hands. That’s the whole principle here.

– Really an important idea that you’ve been talking about a lot. What is your take on America and its role here? Now, increasing the patrol in the Strait of Hormuz. How vulnerable is the strait and what would you like to see from America?

– You know everything is based on the status quo. From the very beginning, every approach, whether it was the carrot or the stick, did not work only because, Maria, the expectation was “behavior change.” As long as you don’t understand the true DNA of this regime that cannot coexist with the Free World, as its principle, it doesn’t matter what you do. They won’t change in attitude. So, there will be a continuation of the nuclear threat, there will be a continuation of navigation interference, and what have you. The question is the solution to the problem is to change the status quo.

– Yeah.

– Like General De Gaulle once said, «Si les circonstances ne sont pas favorables, changez les circonstances.» which means “if the circumstance is not being favorable, we’ll have to change the circumstances.” In this case the change has to be the regime at the end of the day.

– Well, now, we’re seeing a new cozying up to China. You had the leader in Iran travel to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. What are your thoughts on this apparently stronger relationship between Iran and China?

– I don’t know if you can call it a relationship more than it is out of desperation allowing Iran to become practically a vassal state to China. Imagine what an American would feel if tomorrow they will auction off Mount Rushmore, or the Hawaiian Islands. How would you feel as a citizen of this country? It will be outrageous wouldn’t it be? That’s what they are trying to do! They’re trying to sell off Kish Island, Qeshm Island, and even our historical sites. This is where we’re at.

– You also have the Chinese Communist Party trying to get others to use their currency on oil transactions, on various transactions. What is the case in terms of the U.S dollar being the reserve currency and China’s efforts to take that down even via Iran? how much oil is on the black market right now?

– I don’t know exactly what the statistics are. But the main point here is that when we talk to the Western free world/Western democracies, how do we cope with these circumstances? Why it is, at the end of the day, not for our sake but for your own interests that you ought to do something? Otherwise, it’s going to be a complete shift of of balance of power. And in that sense, in this world in the direction that we are currently seeing, you see more presence by the Chinese and controlling these aspects, you see the Iranian axis with Moscow and furnishing drones to the Russians to strike on civilians in in the Ukraine, what have you… A complete reversal of the situation would be beneficial, obviously, to the Iranian people, but to the Free World as well. And all of these concerns that we see right now, whether it’s navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it is all the threats associated with the regime, whether it’s terrorism, whether it’s the nuclear threat. All of these problems will dissipate instantaneously.

What we need to do is to manage a proper transition with a good idea of what the future holds; what a different Iran can mean to the Free World.

– And you’ve been traveling the world trying to get the assessments elsewhere. The media reported your trip in Israel in a mixed way. What did you find in Israel? What are you hearing from other leaders about this?

– Well besides the leaders, and I think we see eye to eye on how vital of a strategic cooperation and partnership Iran can have with Israel; a different Iran, mind you, an Iran that cares about neighborliness of good relationship of peace and stability, but, beyond the leadership that I had very good conversations with doing my stay in Israel, I must tell you the actual citizens of that country, average Israelis randomly would step forward and show their affection for me, for our country, for the dream that they have of a different Iran and the relationship they can have with us and, vice versa, in Iran we’ve had Iranian people chanting pro-Israeli slogans in soccer stadiums showing that, after all, we are all one and the same, and we live to have freedom and brotherhood and the freedom to practice our own faiths without fear of any kind of discrimination or what have you.

– Of course.

– That’s the future that is all about: the principles and values of Human Rights and Freedom against the regime that practically stumbles on all of them. It’s night and day, the difference.

– I mean, is the United Nations complicit here? I mean, how outrageous is it that Iran is going to be leading these human rights social forum?

– I don’t know whether you should laugh about it or cry about it, but it’s tragic. It’s actually a slap in the face. It’s adding insult to injury to a nation that every single day when you hear about women being shot in the face, or being gassed and poisoned inSchools, and that cannot be without direct knowledge and or involvement o the regime. It’s not just accidental, it happens in so many cities over so many weeks. They are intentionally, almost to a genocidal level striking down on their own population. And you reward this as an international body by giving them one of the highest esteemed chairs when it comes to Human Rights? I mean it’s just beyond a joke. It’s outrageous. I hope that world citizens will express their outrage to the U.N and its representatives by saying: look! what are you valuing here? Are you going to reward a terrorist regime that kills and murders its own citizenry, or are we going to be taking the moral high ground of saying we back the sovereignty and sanctity of a nation and after all it comes to peoples having a choice. Do the Iranian people today have a choice? They don’t. That’s what we’re talking about: the difference between having a choice of their own and how they want to live in the future.

– Your highness, thank you for your efforts. Thanks for being here this morning.

– Thank you for having me.

– You’re so appreciated.