Ardeshir Zahedi, now 90, commented on the state of Iran today, in particular increases in levels of education driving women's empowerment. "I am proud to say that because that is my country and this is in last 40 years coming up." Zahedi said he respected the current government "because they work with a logic. And when I hear them, I praise them." Commenting on the United States' policy vis-a-vis Tehran, Zahedi felt that Washington wants "regime change" in Iran. He named Reza Pahlavi, the son of last Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as a potential successor. Commenting on the strength of opposition groups outside of Iran in favour of regime change, Zahedi had doubts. "where do they get their money? Who is going to support them? How much of the army do they have in their hand? It is not easy to just walk into Iran like this. Which said, the Iran of today has [an] army, has police, all of things you use to have it. How they are going to go? They will go by special jet?" "I know many of them [opposition groups living outside of Iran] are kind of in a way corrupt, I can call them. They receive money from the foreigner, work against their own people, I would call them traitors," the former ambassador concluded. Zahedi served as Iran's foreign minister from 1966 to 1971. He served two stints as ambassador to the US from 1960 to 1962 and from 1973 to 1979. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979.
call it like it is, a traitor
When it comes to gun violence, don’t pray vote instead
The impeached tRump is helping to make Russia great again
BDS to deprive the oppressive occupied miltary of its bullets and bombs
Buy American, say NO to Chinese made impeached tRump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
Let's not kid ourselves - Mr. Ardeshir Zahedi was not a diplomat in its traditional, professional, technical, and academic milieu!
He was merely a Washington-based Iranian culture personallity whose only purpose was to organize parties and entertain diplomats and dignitaries!
He is one of the most incoherent, inarticulate, and inept officials of the late Shah's regime.
I bet that even the IRI regime's intelligence and extermination apparatus had determined from the get go that Mr. Zahedi was not considered as a threat but rather an asset for them otherwise he would have been long ago eliminated!
One wonders how, where, why, and for whom the members of the US administrations of the 60's and 70's got/used the derogatory phrase "carpet dealers" - Mr. Ardeshir Zahedi and his likes!
One often ponders why the Shah's regime collapsed and all the factors that led to that demise, both internal and external - Mr. Ardeshir Zahedi and his likes played an important role towards that eventuality!
So now we can tell why all these years the Islamists who terrorized and killed opposition figures in U.S and Europe never bothered to touch this guy. Let me also take a lucky guess (I don’t have evidence) I bet he worked with Khomeini and his gangs behind the scenes prior to 1979. so it shouldn’t be any suprise to anyone why shah's regime collapsed so fast after just a year of protests, lets just say enemy within!
Zahedi has sided with the IRI foreign policy ( and not necessarily the regime itself) eversince he saw RP was accepting Saudi money and tarnishing this family reputation as well as the desperate cause of regime change. He witnessed like all of us how RP betrayed the monarchist cause by openly rejecting his royal titles and the oath he made as King back in 1980 in Cairo.
Zahedi didn't betray the Shah ... RP did. As such he sees Iran's long term interests rather than side with RP's short sighted vision of a so called "democratic" Iran in the after math of the eventual downfall of the IRI. A downfall which is anything but certain but which has become the "dokoon" of RP in order to remain relative in the public discourse.