Riots aimed at toppling Islamic Republic: Shah Pahlavi's son

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The latest riots in Iran have a very clear aim: undermining and toppling the Islamic Republic, Reza Pahlavi, the son of US-backed, autocratic Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, told on Tuesday Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.

The son of Iran's Shah, who caused corruption to fester within the interfolds of the Iranian society under an iron-fist rule, said he believes overthrowing the Islamic Republic could be done via speaking publicly and privately to the army and the armed forces of Iran.

The duty of the soldiers, he underlined, is to defend Iran, its borders, and the Iranian people from external parties and enemies. However, according to the US-installed dictator's son, "they face a domestic enemy: the Islamic Republic, and they must defend the people against it," pushing for internal strife.

Reza highlighted how Iran and the Israeli occupation had "excelled and productive" ties in the 1960s throughout the '70s. "Once this regime falls, its antisemitism and hatred for the state of Israel will also fall."

"Iran will seek economic, cultural, and other ties with Israel as we will with all nations who seek relations with us based on goodwill and mutual interest," the monarch's son said.

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi rose to power after inheriting the throne from his father in 1967. A US regional favorite, he came years after Washington and London helped orchestrate a coup against democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh over his nationalization of Iran's oil sector.

Pahlavi's rule was that of any US-backed dictator. It saw Iran undergoing more than a decade of oppression, human rights violations, corruption, selling strategic national assets to Western firms, and curtailing of religious freedoms. The Shah went as far as banning the hijab and any form of Islamic head coverings for women.

Reza Pahlavi said a "free Iran" would never "seek nuclear weapons, as we would not need them". However, he missed the fact that the Islamic Republic was not seeking nuclear weapons either, and that all the accusations it is facing with regards to the topic stem from its foes, mainly the Israeli occupation and the United States.

The remnant of the monarchy abolished by the Islamic Revolution also underlined that he "support[s] normalization with Israel and Arab nations in the Persian Gulf region and broader Middle East."

Islamic Republic of Iran leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei delivered a speech on Monday, during which he shed light on the anti-government riots that took place following Mahsa Amini's death. 

The leader explicitly accused the US and "Israel" of planning and standing behind the riots. "I say explicitly that these riots and this insecurity were a design by the US and the occupying, fake Zionist regime [Israel] and those who are paid by them, and some traitorous Iranians abroad helped them," Khamenei said.

"The right reaction to it was not for some to create insecurity for people, burn the Quran, mosques, banks, and people's cars, and to pull off women's scarves," describing the immediate reaction without waiting for the investigations as abnormal.

Iran witnessed western-backed riots over the death of a young woman in Iranian police custody, which Iran repeatedly denied, while providing CCTV footage as proof, at a time when the Director General of Forensic Medicine in Tehran Province confirmed Wednesday that there were no traces of beating or wounds on the head and face of the late Iranian Mahsa Amini.

The Iranian police published CCTV footage documenting the last moments of Mahsa Amini at the police station. The Tehran police said the footage proved that the 22-year-old was not subjected to any violence or physical abuse.

Several officials and parties came out and accused the West and the Israeli occupation were behind the riots, but all the warnings fell on deaf ears in light of the mass support the protests garnered due to western media whitewashing them.