Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
We continue the program with our weekly talk with Dr. Mohsen Sazegara, where he shares his expert views on the latest news of Iran with us and tonight we will hear his comments about the protests of our Iranian Arabs in the city of Ahwaz; Ahmadinejad’s latest attempts to enter Iran’s political stage again; and the US reaction to the recent summit of the Turkish, Iranian and Russian leaders in Ankara on the Syrian question.
Dr. Mohsen Sazegara:
Our Iranian Arab brothers and sisters are the same people who defended our country with their flesh and blood when Saddam’s army invaded Iran in 1981. The economic, social, political and cultural pressures that the Islamic regime has put on them since its inception have been far greater than those on our other ethnic minorities.
So much so that the Iranian Arabs have now exploded in anger and frustration and by doing so have brought to the fore the deep social divisions and gaps that exist between the Iranians and the regime that rules over them.
The inertia to the release of the anger of our people was the nationwide uprisings of last December and early January whose aftershocks are still resonating throughout the country and within the establishment.
The focus of the people’s protest has been Khamenei’s powerbase and those directly connected with it, in particular the Revolutionary Guard. This new Persian year will see seismic changes in Iran.
To prepare ourselves for these changes, the Iranian opposition forces of all various colors and ideologies must now unite themselves to make sure that are ready to absorb these changes for the good of the country and its future.
One such step in this right direction is the forthcoming conference of Iranian opposition groups in London on the 14th and 15th of April.
As for Ahmadinejad’s recent posture as an opposition to the establishment, he and his associates reckon that the regime is on the verge of collapse and are trying to take advantage of the situation.
However, he has to answer for many of the regime’s crimes in which he has been a partner and repent publicly, so that our people might just accept that. He has beeninvolved in brining many calamities to our people and it is not good enough for him to just verbally oppose a despotic regime that he has served so loyally.
On the issue of the summit of the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the future of Syria, the Trump administration believes the US has paid a heavy price for fighting the Islamic Caliphate so far and as such had proposed to depart from the country. However the White House has now reversed this decision, as it would have led to more bloodshed and instability in the region.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh has also added that the presence of the US forces in Syria would act as a deterrent to the presence of the Revolutionary Guard forces and that the Israelis are planning a massivemilitary move on the Hezbollah forces in Syria and Lebanon this year.
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We look forward to hearing your views and comments about the issues covered in tonight’s program.