‘’Iranians and Jews are bound by a biblical relationship. In fact, Iranians and Jews are the only two peoples who can claim this in modern history,” he said during a press conference in the Bundestag, German’ts federal parliament in Berlin.
Pahlavi also referred to Cyrus the Great, who laid the foundation for human rights and freedom. He emphasized that the Persian Great King had freed the Jewish slaves from the Babylonian exile and helped them rebuild their temple in Jerusalem.”
He mentioned that Jews who fled Hitler and his regime found refuge in Iran. “That is part of our history. It is part of our tradition to grant refuge to persecuted people.” He also said that Jews in Iran were able to practice their faith freely before the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Now he is fighting for the restoration of their rights and the rights of every other religion in Iran, “because one of the cornerstones of human rights should be the protection of religious freedom.”
Answering a question of a German journalist who asked whether he had come to Berlin ‘’as a representative of Israel,’’ Pahlavi answered: “I am the representative of the Iranian people.’’
The Shah’s son, who lives in exile in the U.S. and is considered the main figure of the Iranian pposition, has put himself forward as a transitional leader in Iran.
He told the reporters European governments should stop appeasing or negotiating with the leadership in Tehran. Nothing that keeps the state apparatus in power should be legitimized. According to Pahlavi, what is needed is a clear change. The people want “the monsters” with blood on their hands to no longer remain in power. ‘’There are no pragmatists or reformers in the regime. There are merely different faces of a regime.”
Last week, Pahlavi declined an invitation to address members of the European Parliament foreign affairs committee in Brussels, reportedly because several other opposition figures were also invited to speak.