You don't appear in public with a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb your homeland, unless you're a member of a terrorist cult and/or your IQ is lower than room temperature...

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so true

Thanks to Mr. Edward Snowden, my rights to privacy has been partially restored and this e-mail might not be illegally collected or read by our Government until the politicians try to find a way to take it away again.

Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf

“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King

Good points are being made here in this piece but my disappointment with him began during the disgraceful GWB disastrous rein, which just like now he could not pass an opportunity to beat the hawks drum and cheer their march to war thinking that just like Chalabi, he would be putting in power.

Never care to think a power that is given can easily be taken.

Thanks to Mr. Edward Snowden, my rights to privacy has been partially restored and this e-mail might not be illegally collected or read by our Government until the politicians try to find a way to take it away again.

Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf

“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King

RP distancing himself from his original agenda which was dictated to him not just by history but his father's last will started at the time of his flirtations with Ali Reza Nourizadeh as early as the 1980's and then reaffirmed as the Pro Green Activists started taking front stage in 2009 thanks to all these left wing parazites who took over VOA Persian and BBC Persian ranging from Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi who were activiely promoting an anti Shah narrative and belittling the monarchists as "out of touch" with contemporary Iran ... as if these guys hardly born at the time of the Shah were any more in touch with today's world.

RP ignored all the pro monarchy demos organized in London and Germany by genuine monarchist activists over the years to recluse himself and only come onto stage after Daryoush Homayoun and other genuine and vocal monarchists had passed away.

Even Former Iranian Ambassador under the Imperial regime Ardeshir Zahedi also expressed disgust at rumors of the Persian Prince's connections and taking money from the Saudis as a sign of treason. 

He never mentioned RP directly but it takes little stretch of the mind to know who he was thinking about.

The Turning point of RP's treachery started with his creation of his unconstitutional shora ( National Council) the name itself unimaginatively copied from that of NIAC.

Each clumsy and insensitive political move on his part drew him further from his historical agenda and Oath made in 1980 and reached the pinnacle of incompetence when his channel and spokespersons ( Nazilla Golestan and Reza Pirzadeh ) managed to arrogantly insult the poor Shahram Homayoun who for years and at the worst time for monarchists was staunchly trying to defend the monarchist cause and keep the monarchists united despite their increasing doubts on RP's competence and loyalty.

شهرام همایون بابت عدم رودررویی با شاهزاده رضا پهلوی امروزدربرنامه آخرین لحظه ازبینندکان خداحافظی کرد:::

پنجشنبه ۲۱ خرداد ۱۳۹۴ - ۱۱ ژوئن۲۰۱۵

The coup de grace for Homayoun happened when he lost his father and broke up on air and having lost my own father The insensitiveness and intellectual arrogance of RP came to light for me at least.

I realized that nobody can save RP from himself.

No Damage control, no effort could do any good.

I started having my own doubts when I saw how RP blew up his first conference after the demos in 2009 by "Crying" for Neda. 

He ignored EVERY Symbolic Gesture when it mattered. Whether when Shapour Bakhtiar's assassins were freed ( making sure Nikahang Kowsar does his "investigation" on Bakhtiar's so called ties with Saddam ... which make RP's own flirtations today even more hypocritical) to going to an Ebi Concert when his own Aunt Princess Ashraf was laid to rest or that of the late Shapour Gholam Reza.

To his belittling of the 50th anniversary of the Pahlavi Dynasty ceremonies where he went and gave a silly interview with Nikahang Kowsar and Morad Bargi with silly anecdotes aimed at belittling the event by saying how he was "sick on that day".

Or when he went to praise Shamloo who called Ferdowsi a Racist and other anti monarchist comments.

or when he went and signed the NIAC IRI Apologist Ramin Jahanbegloo's petition "Manshoor 99" at the same time as he created his unconstitutional shora with a bunch of PRo Green Activists to disastrous effect.

I could go on and on on the list of clumsy interviews and stupid remarks on his behalf .

When Force and strength were a political tool he squandered it with his childish approach and it became a downhill battle since.

Which paved the way for the ever increasing influence of NIAC and Trita Parsi's IRI lobbying and success in spreading the false narrative that monarchists advocated War on Iran just like the MKO.

RP did NOTHING to correct that impression during the Bush Years when he was against everyone's advice going on Air on Fox News only to end up switching sides with the Pro Green Protests of 2009 and presenting himself as a "shahrvand" because he was afraid he would be misunderstood and come across as arrogant in the face of the "Sacrifice" of Iranians back home.

The Fellow did not understand that he had history on his side and that all it took was for him to remain silent and allow debate to naturally divide Iranians abroad on the merits or not of the monarchy.

Instead he remained silent in the face of all these so called "IRan Experts" insulting his father or rewriting history as in the case of Abbas Milani.

All this allowed NIAC and ALL the Jomhurykhah camp who took over VOA Persian to depict a new narrative to feed to the young Iranian expats who had left Iran after 2009.

Instead of seizing upon the crackdown of Iranians back in 2009 and tell the world and western press who accused his Father of SAVAK's tortures and other unfounded claims he went and spoke about "democracy" and "Human Rights" as if that was not respected under the 1906 Constitution.

EVERY STEP HE TOOK WAS AIMED AT DELIGIMITIZING THE 1906 CONSTITUTION AND MAKE PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT HIS OATH MADE TO OUR GENERATION.

He even went and said publicly he would support the election of the first female President in Iran ( Aka as if he was reading from Shirin Ebadi's lips) if those monarchists who merely questioned him on his loyalty to the 1906 Constitution did not accept his daughter Noor as heir. Which she isn't anyways. 

So here we are left with a Fashion Model Seeking Princess who hardly speaks Persian but is encouraged to live in LA LA LAND only to end up marrying some rich Iranian nobody ... or heaven forbid some rich American who knows with this disfunctional family what the Great Reza Shah's

Offsprings are capable to do ...

So contrary to what FRed claims this is not I who have found a "new found Hatred" for RP ... I have found it impossible to do any more damage control when the very man who is supposed to defend our cause is siding with the enemy.

RP will be remembered by historians as a Traitor to his father and grandfather's dynasty and ultimately to Iran itself.

Even Ahmad Shah Qajar did not lower himself to this level of disingenuous mediocrity  and clumsy opportunism 

Sigh ... 

DK, you were a fan until recently so as they say with friends like you...

RP has never proven particularly charismatic or capable. Unlike you I was never a fan nor thought much of his ability to articulate a message or direction. Yet he represents the continuation of Shah (regardless of one's opinion of Shah) and to that extent seems your (many Shah supporters) constant shoveling of poop on him is less than becoming.

His confusion and lack of a goal in whatever he is putting his effort into, is rather consistent with Iranian political character and reflective of the same idiotic confusion that got people to street to throw away their own freedoms and happiness. And he is hanging to whatever rope of hope being thrown at him by whoever; much like Iranians with Rouhani, Mousavi, Khatami, etc.

He is also reflective of an opposition like yourself that seems to forbid any kind of alliance to enable an action while the slimic repubic plays every dirty game and invents one every week. The net of it is he is not going anywhere with the inept Iranian opposition, but you ain't going anywhere with your kind of support either. Attacking the enemy is more effective approach than picking on this guy.

Worse yet, he equate a meeting with this loose canon Arizonian to Trita, the ultimate scum ball, being right about anything. The fact is with all I mentioned equating RP with MR is sinking pretty low.

shashoo 

Oooh ... Love your rant

It deserves a Long Response to show your own level of confusion because if anything I am a Fan of the Monarchy and the last Pahlavi Shah's not of the "citizen" RP became since he decided to create his Unconstitutional Shora.

I don't have time to respond right now but to make it short ... No RP does not represent the continuation of the Shah let alone the monarchy. It is precisely why I am not his "friend" ...

A Subject is not supposed to be a "friend" of the monarch but one who serves him loyally

As such I served as a supporter of Reza Shah Dovom  as long as HE WAS Reza Shah Dovom ... not when he relinquished those titles to become a Shahrvand particularly upon creating his unconstitutional shora and calling for a referendum when his defense of the 1906 Constitution was never a matter of Choice but loyalty.

I tried to do all the damage control possible on this website as I did on the previous site when it was possible but as RP went downhill in his demeanor and disloyalty and openly rejecting my likeminds it became impossible for me as it has become impossible for any genuine monarchist I know ( and that does not include the pahlavist supporters like Fred or Faramarz the Amaricanized bee hovyat who are anything but Monarchists in my book, even less Iranian ) to support RP or his agenda.

So No RP is the continuation of anything you want but definitively not of the Monarchy let alone of his dynasty.

I have explained it thoroughly eversince the creation of his unconstitutional Shora why I could not support him anymore.

If that makes me consider me as a disloyal friend of his then you are off the mark !

He is the one who rejected people like me or his loyal base and not the other way round. 

As for the opposition ... it was never inept ... it never existed ... at least not outside the monarchist camp. 

If by "opposition: you consider those who left Iran following the revolution or in the years that followed the 2009 upheavels to showcase themselves as secular opponents ... well quite frankly they never were part of the opposition in the first place.

People who like Esmail Nouriala or Nourizadeh or Sazegara or so many others in the public eye

like those running cultural centers in the diaspora like PAIIA or run TV stations ... or journalists like Nikahang Kowsar who rubs his balls in public in front of RP and then spreads the photo on social media while investigating Bakhtiar's so called  "treason" only to become RP's malijak

Well Unlike Fred and other of his Jomhurykhah likeminds I don't consider ANY Of these people as part of the opposition.

Never did ... and never liked RP's approachment with these dubious groups but had to wait on the sidelines and observe how far he planned to go in creating his dubious short or long term alliances which today are blowing out of proportion by even sucking up to the Saudis and Orthodox Israeli groups who encourage separaticism.

So they are the Real "Friends" of RP ... Not Me ... 

I always identified with the Real Opposition ... that is the monarchists  who don't go about apologizing like RP or his Pahlavist supports have whenever someone brings up the word SAVAK or lack of democracy  under the Imperial Regime were Never Inept ... we were and are active ... but given that the man we supported as long as he presented himself as King and supporter of the restoration of the 1906 Constitution decided all by himself to dump all that to the dustbins of history ... our opposiiton ended up leaderless.

That is not the fault of our deemed "ineptitude" but that of RP and his IRI infested Shora.

PS: Oh and lastly I never said this scum bag Trita was Right ... I said RP makes him Sound Right precisely by giving Trita the evidence he needed to prove his "thesis" right.

Trita may be a Scum all right but he happens to be a smart Scum ... 

RP happens to be a dumb one ... were it otherwise he would never have signed the Manshoor 91 ( or 99) put together by NIAC's Ramin Jahanbegloo precisely at the same time as he set out to create his unconstitutional Shora and without the approval of the Constitutionalist Monarchists many of whom resigned after the sham elections he set up on Paris.

I was asked to join his Shora and I refused to do so precisely for this reason.

Hence the ineptitude of the "opposition" ( yours not mine) you rightly highlighted ...

But then that is not the fault of "friends" Like me ... but His own New "friends" who by the way have more in common with Trita Parsi than with me or my likeminds  ...

As such I take that as a badge of honor not to be considered as Shahrvand Reza's  "friend"  ! ...

RP is neither charismatic nor does he have any good leadership skills.  He fails to motivate, inspire and even make people organize around him and his ideology (what ever it is) .  His legitimacy comes from 1906 constitution which he does not even reference any more. He has no interests in politics and he lowered himself to a simple shahrvand status and his latest tune “whatever people decide” is an indirect way of passing a buck.  Talking to McCain (Is there a war that McCain does not like?) and people like him advocating regime change while abdicating his own responsibility is honestly scary!  Suppose U.S does help and this regime comes to an end, with RP himself not wanting any part of the new regime, who is going to take over in Iran at the time that there is so much malaise in a society with separatists armed to teeth waiting for instability to move in? 

Exactly MRX Jan 

Couldn't have said it any better. That people don't see that is mindboggling.

And of course I can already see those who were against RP or the monarchy cheering at the fact that I am now RP's most staunchest critic.

I don't care about them. Those who were against the monarchy will always be against the monarchy. My goal has never been to change them given that we don't even share the same vision nor pursue the same ideological goal. 

People may be discovering it here but I have been vocal in my critics of RP on social media and FB for the past 3 years at least.

It even reached his ears. I don't care. 

It first broke my heart to see his disingenous behavior but then I had to come to the realization that this man doesn't care about the monarchy and even less about all those who sacrificed themselves for the cause. 

He may be the son of two great Kings ... he himself is a loser and a traitor. 

It's the future of the monarchy which matters to me ... and RP has not only jeopardized it for good he is adding insult to injury now by siding with Iran's enemies. 

These guys couldn't care less about the IRI ... it's IRan which they want to see destroyed in the process. 

I didn't change ... my political agenda remains. I was, am and will be a monarchist be it with another King or King Maker ... but that is beyond the point today.

RP relinquished the fight ... not me ... so he is the only one to blame not me or my monarchist likeminds.

Yes DK,

Mine is a rant. Keep up the good fight.

We keep seeing referrals to 1906 constitution as “The Document” in support of Monarchy and yet nobody bothers to mention that articles 1 and 2 of the laws clearly established Islam as the official religion of the country and more importantly it specified that all laws of the nation must be approved by a committee of Shia clerics. It is this fine habit of us Iranians in cherry-picking that has brought us to this dismal setting.  There is plenty of blame to go around and the 2 Pahlavi kings certainly bear responsibility for a large portion of it.

Kamal FM you are ignorance personified ...

Unlike us Iranians who at least had a Constitution The British don't even have a written constitution yet have been able to respect their royals ( whose ancestors were even imported from Germany and imposed on them by a foreign invasion) and establish the oldest parliamentary system in the world even before the United States which actually copied their bill of Rights.

Unlike the imported British Monarchs The Pahlavi Monarchs were nationalists and grassroot monarchs (who got a bad name due to all the Mossadeghollahi propaganda on the coup that never was aimed at deligitimazing them ) additionally we had a written Constitution and look at what we did with it ? Even Mossadegh did not respect it and thought he was more important than the head of state.

If the British have democracy and we don't yet keep looking for role models elsewhere ranging from Turkey to the American Federalist system it just shows the level of confusion and simplistic understanding on the very nature of our societies and our history which has nothing in common with it's western or American political models which you Iranian Expats see as the panacea of all things  ... 

As for Religion it is by definition at the heart of the Royal Establishment in EVERY Culture and Royal institution in the world including in the United Kingdom where the monarch is head of Church, hence the British Version of the Velayeteh Fagih.

in 2500 years of Persian Monarchy ALL Monarchs were deemed anointed ... all you have to do is look at the Aechemenid Monarchs at Persepolis and what do you have displayed on the head of the Bas Reliefs of Darius and Xerxes ? The Zoroastrian Fravahar ...

Iran was muslim for 14 centuries and to expect a monarch and particularly the Pahlavi Kings  to dismiss the religious authorities overnight which would undermine the very concept of the Monarchy just shows how out of touch you American Infatuated Iranians are !

The 1906 Constitution itself inspired from that of the Belgian Constitution was established at a time when Russia was also trying to adopt the Parliamentary nature common to all modern states or states aspiring to modernity yet adamant to maintain their own Identity and particularity.

I find it amazing how simplistic conclusions you Iranian Jomhurykhahs ( massalan "secular" ) are in your criticisms of the Pahlavi Kings who in practice were far more secular than any of their predecessors. 

Yet they are to blame even for the revolution which the very pseudo intellectuals you and your likeminds ( Shamloo, amongst others  ) admire so much advocated and brought to disastrous existence.

If anyone is to blame for the defeat of the Parliamentary system in Iran it is definitively not the Pahlavi Kings ... but Iranians themselves and in particular it's so called "eminent" intellectual elite whose diatribe has become mainstream on diaspora channels and websites like BBC Persian or VOA.

But after all you and your likeminds deserve an accolade since you achieved to turn a would be King in exile into this apologetic low profile "Sharvand" who now has absolutely no effect or impact on the future of our country and which ultimately is achieving what you anti monarchists and NIAC always wanted : the legitimization of the revolution which brought about the clerical regime you now claim to "oppose" ...

Job Well done !

Congrats ! 

DK, you just proved my point, we are where we are precisely for your kind of approach! When are we going to stop shouting and start listening? Nobody has the exclusive right on matters belonging to Iran. You believe in the institution of monarchy as a viable form of government for our country and I don’t. There is nothing that we can tell each other to convince us otherwise but we can re-examine materials relative to our homeland, start a dialogue for the sake of understanding what went wrong. Now, I brought up a couple of articles from Iran’s constitution. Obviously we cannot deny that they are there. They were not meant as decorations, they are clearly giving a certain sector of our society the right to approve or deny the laws of the land.  It is a safe bet that we all believe in the separation of mosque and state and yet, it is right there in our constitution! Contrary to your assertion, I was not suggesting that Pahlavi kings complied with those articles, rather, they ignored the right of clergy, guaranteed by the constitution! Hence, giving the Mullahs a legitimate excuse resulting in anger, frustration, uprising leading to emergence of Khomeini and eventual fall of Pahlavi dynasty. As I said before, there is plenty of blame to go around. I did not suggest that Pahlavi dynasty was the only cause for our current misery. Had they put their trust in the Iranian nation rather than making all the important decisions on their behalf, we would not be where we are today and at the opportune historical moment would have amended those restrictive laws in the constitution.    

DK,

Your response to my comment and now kamalFM's exemplifies the problem.

My comment had little in common with KFM's yet as a matter of habit and style you go on irrelevant tangents, diatribe and name calling. Most importantly you defend a position no one is attacking and never address the core of the whatever point is being made because you are too busy lecturing and talking down and labeling.

I could easily write a "rant" like yours and then equate you with Trita tyoes because you are in effect serving their PR and messaging to your own demise, but I won't because you are not Trita and I see you a decent man even if a hard core monarchist and like most 'I think therefore I'm right'. Try having a conversation rather than just arguing for how right you are and how much better you know. It is not just what you say bu how you say it.

بفرما و بشین و بتمرگ همش یه معنی‌ داره

KamalFM,

Your view on Shah and Clergy is containdicated. IMHO, the single biggest mistake of Shah was allowing the slimist and clergy to build a base (mosque) in every inch of the country along with other exemtions like military service.

Shashoo,

Thanks for your worlds of wisdom, I couldn’t have said it any better. All I know is that something is terribly wrong in the way we treat each other, myself included. We get too entangled on the trivial matters, losing the sight of the big picture. My above babbling was a mere exercise in understanding the role of clergies in our recent history by adding a legal element to the argument. It certainly begs for further investigation. Lack of interest in finding real answers for our dilemmas and disputes deeply terrifies my whole existence. The idea that somehow magically our complications will go away by a simple regime change is beyond my comprehension. BTW, had not heard the word contraindicated in ages. I give it a high chance that you have some connection to the medical field ;) Cheers.  

words of wisdom :)

Those articles are not the first and second articles of the constituion of 1906. Those were amendments. The person who wrote the religious oversight clause was a member of clergy but a constitutionalist. When asked about it he quipped: "have you ever seen Akhoonds agreeing on anything?" (his son became an ardent toudehie later during the Pahlavis).  Let's say the Clergy (i.e. the mob) and the landed gentry made a farce of pre-Pahlavi parliament to the extent that everyone was wishing for a strong leader (same during Saint Mossadegh's monumental failure). The problem is not monarchy but 110+ years of opposition to modernity.

Fozolie, 

Whether those articles were on the original document or the amended version is irrelevant. The fact remains that the monarchs were obligated to exercise their authorities within the limits prescribed in that established legal framework. One can only imagine what a fierce and intensified environment must have been to be a part of that team of authors, writing the constitution. We are talking about preparing a document describing the rules that took away power from the absolute monarch and gave it to the masses. Nobody is willing to readily give up power. There must have been profound negotiation, lobbying and bargaining among the parties involved, every word in the final document getting scrutinized to the fullest degree. So, the quote by one of the unnamed authors of the amendments, if true, can only be attributed to making light of the situation, perhaps assuring the monarch that there was nothing to worry about.      

They are not irrelevant and your prejudice view combined with your lack of knowledge of your history [the key struggle was not with the monarch but social] means you are missing the forrest for the trees. No wonder we suffer so.

Here we go again, lack of knowledge, prejudice,…. It is sickening! I challenged our contributors to a dialogue on the subject of our constitution but it appears that I failed to make my point. I’m way out of energy to continue. Till next time. 

Why can I not become a fan of the Pahlavis?... Because of the Pahlavists. Bitterly short and simple...

Kamal I am familiar with your techniques to reduce the arguments to banalities, splitting hairs, going off on tangents, ignoring key points then hiding behind injured feelings.  Your lot starts the polemics then cries foul.  I repeat an examination of the failure of the parliament and the promise of the constitution had nothing to do with the monarch. It was cultural and socio-economic. Moreover the complaint in Iran has always been the lack of application and rule of law not the constitution itself which the clergy successfully exploited later in 79 precisely because of Iranian total lack of interest in their own history.  Keep missing the forrest for the trees.  

Very good points foozile on your last post Precise and on point.