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Shah's Son: Iran Conflict Could Trigger Nuclear War
NewsMax / Agence France Presse ^ | June 22, 2009

Posted on 06/22/2009 11:43:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The exiled son of the late shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, warned Monday of dire consequences for the volatile Middle East and the rest of the world if the popular uprising in Iran is crushed.

The defeat of the movement protesting the outcome of presidential elections 10 days ago would not only threaten global stability but could lead to nuclear war, Pahlavi told a news conference here.

The exiled son of the late shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, warned Monday of dire consequences for the volatile Middle East and the rest of the world if the popular uprising in Iran is crushed.

The defeat of the movement protesting the outcome of presidential elections 10 days ago would not only threaten global stability but could lead to nuclear war, Pahlavi told a news conference here.

"Their defeat will encourage extremism from the shores of the Levant to the energy jugular of the world," said Pahlavi, who left Iran a year before the ouster of his father, shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"At worst, fanatical tyrants who know that the future is against them may end their present course on their terms: a nuclear holocaust," Pahlavi told a room packed with reporters at the National Press Club in Washington.

Pahlavi urged Western media to continue to act as "the information artery connecting different parts of the freedom movement in Iran" by globally spreading the messages coming from the protesters inside the country.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ahmadinejad; bho44; bhoiran; iran; iranviolence2009; islam; mousavi; nuclearweapons; pahlavi; rezapahlavi; tm; wot
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Of course he's right. Too bad Mr. Obama either doesn't realize this or doesn't care. He's busy golfing and trying to undo the greatest health system the world has ever known.
1 posted on 06/22/2009 11:43:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My impression is still that most of the Iranian people don’t hate the west. This has been reinforced by current events. Obama obviously values order above freedom, however, and can’t be counted on to take the right steps. He might even be jealous of the mullah’s power.


2 posted on 06/22/2009 11:50:30 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet
He has a point. If the uprising is crushed and likes of Ahmadinejad in Iran regains momentum, they could get really belligerent.
4 posted on 06/22/2009 11:56:00 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (LUV DIC -- L,U,V-shaped recession, Depression, Inflation, Collapse)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My biggest concern is the current crowd in charge of Iran sees all this turmoil as a sign of the Mahdi’s return.


5 posted on 06/23/2009 12:14:28 AM PDT by edpc (01010111 01010100 01000110 00111111)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
Don't know if they like us or not. Mousavi is no angel, has as much blood on his hands as the present nutjob, was khomeni's PM and started their clandestine nuclear weapons program. He was the director of terror operations in Lebanon when our Marines were killed.

They're running around with green headbands like hamas and hezbollah and screaming allah akbar.

What ever causes chaos to the mullahs is fine.

Free elctions, the palis elected hamas, lebanon elected hezbollah in the previous election, this one they didn't do so well but well enough to run most of the country. The iraqis elected mostly islamists who have no love for America.

Thing with mooslims is they love killing Christians and Jews a bit better than killing shiites or sunnis. Remember that iran is first and foremost a muslim country, everything else comes a distant second.

6 posted on 06/23/2009 12:25:55 AM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck. (Let them eat arugula!))
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I don’t see a connection of the two, I can be slow sometimes though.


7 posted on 06/23/2009 12:26:58 AM PDT by FreeSouthernAmerican (All we ask is to be let alone----Jefferson Davis)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

How can this be? Everyone knows the intelligence estimate says Iran has no nuclear weapons.


8 posted on 06/23/2009 12:29:57 AM PDT by Nachoman (Think of life as an adventure you don't survive.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

the only option now open to the Persian people is to root out the entrenched mullahocracy with terminal prejudice ,
As they have used IEDs against our troops in Iraq , now it should their turn .


9 posted on 06/23/2009 12:51:41 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: LeoWindhorse

The islamic regime was for years flowing arms to Iraq... now we can’t return the favor? Mr Obama? Hello???


10 posted on 06/23/2009 12:55:09 AM PDT by SolidWood (Down with the islamic regime! Freedom for Iran!)
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To: SolidWood

“The islamic regime was for years flowing arms to Iraq... now we can’t return the favor? Mr Obama? Hello???”

Check out the Arlington Baskin-Robbins.


11 posted on 06/23/2009 1:39:59 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Impeach President Soros!!!)
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To: SolidWood

Iran is not on 0bongo’s radar screen. All he cares about is buying the votes of the gimme crowd which gets larger every day. Gimme free health care. Gimme free houses

0bongo is the stupidest shit we ever had as president. Our first rap star president. Most short sighted too. It is all about looking good like a rap star and bumping up the popularity polls. Which for rappers means selling records and for 0bongo means buying votes


12 posted on 06/23/2009 1:49:41 AM PDT by dennisw ("stealth tribal warfare" is what the Sotomayor nomination is about)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

Well, Iranians aren’t stupid. Enough information and images filter in to their country for them to understand the differences between how westerners live and move about versus their own plight. Those were /are protests against their own government, not the West. It’s not their fault that ostammer wants them to fail.


13 posted on 06/23/2009 2:21:06 AM PDT by bustinchops
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Reinstate the shah, I say.


14 posted on 06/23/2009 3:57:29 AM PDT by beagleone
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; nctexan; MassachusettsGOP; paudio; ronnie raygun; Minette; fieldmarshaldj; ...

** NEW **

*** IRAN POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***

A beautiful speech delivered in impeccable English

THE TEXT OF REZA PAHLAVI’S SPEECH:

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-22-2009/0005047916&EDATE=

VIDEO OF REZA PAHLAVI’S SPEECH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zv5VMShOyk

REZA PAHLAVI OF IRAN Opening Remarks

THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB WASHINGTON, D.C. JUNE 22ND, 2009

WASHINGTON, June 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ —

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you all for coming. Thank you for your time, and attention to the cry for freedom and democracy on the streets of Iran. I can tell you, first hand, how much my compatriots are appreciative of your generous attention to their plight. The best I can do for you today is to recount what my fellow Iranians tell me about their conditions, hopes and fears.

Bear in mind that for the great majority of Iranians born after the Islamic Revolution, the unfolding events are the most significant transforming experiences of their collective memory. The courage of their convictions gives hope for peace and democracy in the most troubling region of the world. On the other hand, their defeat will encourage extremism from the shores of the Levant, to the energy jugular of the world. At the very least it will threaten regional tranquility and global economic recovery through fears of terrorism, slowdown of globalization and steeply higher energy prices. At worst, fanatical tyrants - who know that the future is against them - may end their present course on their terms: a nuclear holocaust.

But which will it be? That is the question of the day. My message to you is: do not underestimate the role you play in the outcome. International media are already the information artery connecting different parts of the freedom movement in Iran. That is why the regime has ominously warned media, that only officially approved reports can be dispatched out of the country. Having restricted the return path of media, they are also jamming electronic transmission and restricting internet traffic into the country. But it is the third leg of communication, from people to people, from one resistance cell to another, and from leaders to supporters inside Iran, of which the regime is most fearful. They cannot fight people who stand together. Only an information blackout can isolate individuals, so that they can be oppressed separately. Thus the outcome of this struggle will depend on your ability, the free media, to fight their blackout with the light of information.

Your second contribution is keeping your political leaders informed about the brutal violence of the regime’s plain-clothes thugs against unarmed people. Your governments have insisted that they would not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. I applaud that. Any such attempt will give the tyrants the excuse they need to paper over their own differences, and target every man struggling for freedom as a foreign agent. But that is not all they do. They are painting every statement in defense of human rights as foreign interference, benefiting from the confusion between the two. It is vital that the free world not fall for such cruel cynicism in the name of realpolitik.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights knows no national boundaries. Its defense is not only a matter of ethics, but a mutual obligation of all governments who are its signatories. It is also in their interest. No one will benefit from closing his or her eyes to knives and cables cutting into faces and mouths of our young and old, or from bullets piercing our beloved “Neda” whose only sin was the quest freedom - no one, no one but tyrants and their thugs. Do not let them define what is disrespect for sovereignty, what is interference in others’ affairs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A movement was born on the 22nd of Khordad in my calendar, the 12th of June in yours. It is not Islamic or anti-Islamic, it is not for capitalism or socialism, nor any other ideology or specific form of government. It cares little about historical squabbles before its birth. It is about the sanctity, even more, the sovereignty of the ballot box. It may not succeed immediately. It may have ebbs and flows. But, let me assure you it will not die, because we will not let it die.

A week later, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic decided to stand erect as a dam in front of this movement, sanctioning theft of the ballot box and flagrant fraud, all in the name of Islam. It was an ugly moment of disrespect for both God and man. It will not stand. The citizens of Iran will not stand it. And at the end, he will not stand.

Rest assured, the Movement of 22nd of Khordad, already invested with the blood of my brave countrymen, with energy and support in every corner of Iran and the globe will not rest until it achieves unfettered democracy and human rights in Iran.

SOURCE Reza Pahlavi


15 posted on 06/23/2009 4:06:52 AM PDT by Cincinna (TIME TO REBUILD * PALIN * JINDAL * CANTOR 2012)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

> Of course he’s right. Too bad Mr. Obama either doesn’t realize this or doesn’t care.
Obama is Oblivious to everything that doesn’t fit his Chicago Gangster Model of government.


16 posted on 06/23/2009 4:21:28 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Obama's printed so much currency that he's the envy of counterfeiters and con men everywhere.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

17 posted on 06/23/2009 4:23:11 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
If he's not golfing or jet-setting off on date-night, then he must be eating ice cream!


18 posted on 06/23/2009 4:24:55 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Nachoman

That be the same group of experts that still don’t know the Soviet Union collapsed?


19 posted on 06/23/2009 4:48:13 AM PDT by Joe Boucher
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To: Eagles6
Mousavi is no angel, has as much blood on his hands as the present nutjob, was khomeni's PM and started their clandestine nuclear weapons program. He was the director of terror operations in Lebanon when our Marines were killed.

Nevertheless, he is now 100% owned by the angry movement protesting the selection against him. If they prevail, he has to get on their shoulders, they don't have to get on his. And they will take him in a direction he never anticipated. If he doesn't cooperate they will chew through him like a percussion drill through a mole's guts.

20 posted on 06/23/2009 4:49:30 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast (Rent this space.)
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