LISTEN TO THE IRANIANS, THEY WANT FREEDOM, REZA PAHLAVI TELLS THE WEST

PARIS 6 June (IPS) With less than 24 hours to the Iranian presidential elections and as all campaigning stopped at midnight, the son of the late Shah of Iran described Wednesday the forthcoming race a "farce" and called on the international community to help changing the present Iranian theocracy into a democracy.

Interviewed by the leading French daily "Le Monde" correspondent in the UN, the Iranian-born Mrs. Afsaneh Bassir Pour, the forty years-old Reza Pahlavi said "Iranian are 70 millions and the world has to listen to them, not to the regime that represents no one".

Asked to comment on the Friday elections, Mr. Pahlavi said he do not expect any change, as "once again, the regime ha organised elections that Iranian are well aware of it being a farce".

He said if the Iranian went massively to the polls four years ago, it was first to vote against the ruling establishment and then because Mr. Mohammad Khatami had made promises the people desired.

Mr. Khatami is widely expected to be re-elected Friday, as none of the nine other runners poses any threat to him but only taking away a good number of the votes in the first round.

The campaigning that ended Wednesday at midnight was calm and unenthusiastic, people reacting with indifference, in sharp difference with the atmosphere four years ago, when the relatively unknown Khatami crushed his conservative rival by 20 millions votes to less then seven.

Analysts explained people’s apathy to the presidential campaign this time by the fact that the outcome was known before hand in the one hand and that no one expected any change to come, on the other.

"This time, the situation is completely different. Khatami has deceived the people, having failed to deliver. Besides, people has realised that he has no power, do not control anything, even not the Radio Television and not only he never stood firmly to the conservatives, but every time he sided with them", Prince Pahlavi told Le Monde.

To a question about organising a referendum on the nature of the regime, Mr. Pahlavi said this could and should come with the help of international community.

"For instance, the Americans should not end the sanctions against the Iranian regime without conditions. The Europeans who speaks of expanding investments in Iran should also make it conditional to, for instance, the release of detained students, ending press censorship and, why not, organising a referendum", he suggested.

When asked but how to convince Westerners, the young Prince who lives in the United States said emphatically: It is a matter of conscience.

"My role, he explained, is to attract (foreigners) attention to the fact that Iranians demand a democratic solution and that they no more believe in the promised reforms. Time has arrived for the left and for the right, for the Monarchists and for the Republicans to reach unity in action".

He said he sees himself not representing a particular institution but rather a catalyser that aims at democracy in his homeland.

Mr. Pahlavi also claimed to be in "permanent" contact with many people inside Iran, "people who are in the regime, the revolutionary guards, officers of the (regular army) or clerics to who I say you are not bound to capsize once the ship start sinking".

Reiterating that the Iranian do no more back the regime, the son of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, deposed after the victory of the Islamic revolution of 1979, said in his view, the time for change has arrived, "a non violent transition, like the one that took place in Serbia", he added, expressing however fear to see the regime opting for violence.

"Listen to the Iranians. You had forgot the Iranians for twenty-two years. Now they are seventy millions to demand freedoms. I say to the West the oil that runs through your pipelines is not more important than the blood that runs in the veins of Iranians", he said in answer to a question about his message to the international community.

He admitted to "many mistakes and excesses" committed under his father, including lack of political freedoms, but added immediately that those who contributed to the popular revolution were not expecting this result. "Iran has regressed", he said, adding that he would rather prefer to talk about the future, as history would judge what did happened then".

Asked what political system he thinks would be best adapted to Iran, Mr. Pahlavi said he does not care as far as the future regime is based on democratic principles and chosen by the people freely.

"In such a schema, the form is secondary, whether a constitutional Monarchy or a republic, where I would play the role of an engaged citizen", he said. PAHLAVI LE MONDE 6601