00:00:08.920Good afternoon, Ian. Thank you so much for having me on.
00:00:11.040It's a pleasure. Nice to have you with us. So firstly, is this a protest or a revolution?
00:00:16.700It's 100% a revolution, Ian. People are out on the streets.
00:00:20.520They're saying down with the dictator, down with the Islamic Republic.0.66
00:00:23.840People are done with the Sharia law that has oppressed them for the last 47 years.0.95
00:00:28.500And they're also chanting, this is the final battle, Pahlavi will return.0.63
00:00:33.000Of course, Pahlavi is a reference to the king of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, who's currently in exile right now.
00:00:39.960He has a transition plan to lead the country from a totalitarian Islamic dictatorship
00:00:45.560into a functioning secular democracy.0.91
00:00:48.120And Iranians only trust him to lead them through that transition process.0.88
00:00:52.640And this is the son of, right, that we're talking about here.0.97
00:00:57.020Yes, absolutely. He is the son of the former Shah of Iran.
00:01:00.380Yeah. Is this likely to happen? Because as far as I can see, and do correct me if I'm wrong, the issues are multiple.
00:01:09.080There is, as you rightly say, the Islamist dictatorship, as it were, that has thread its way through everybody's life and made it hell for so many people.0.96
00:01:20.020But of course, and perhaps interconnected, I suppose intrinsically connected, are the economic issues, inflation and goodness knows what else.1.00
00:01:28.360There is a real risk that whoever were to take over would still be faced with these fundamental problems.
00:01:36.200Oh, absolutely. So one of the things that we have to do is rebuild the country, because after 47 years, the Islamic dictatorship has essentially taken us back to the 7th century.0.99
00:01:47.520Prior to 1979, Iran was a secularized, modernizing country that was slowly becoming like South Korea.0.94
00:01:56.820It was becoming the South Korea of the Middle East or even the Japan.0.89
00:02:01.360But the Islamic dictatorship, they're a fundamentalist, totalitarian regime.0.94
00:02:06.000All they do is they've basically stolen the money that should be going to the Iranian people,0.93
00:02:10.960and they spend it on terrorism, not just in the Middle East, but around the world.
00:02:15.060and Iranians are currently in poverty right now.
00:02:18.800And so the issue, you're right, it's not just the economy,
00:02:21.900it's human rights violations, it's lack of water,
00:02:24.500it's lack of clean air, it's environmental issues.
00:02:26.780And of course, of course, the biggest one is the fact1.00
00:02:29.560that Iranians are being murdered at the hands of the Islamic Republic0.98
00:02:33.260for the last 47 years just because they want to live
00:02:36.140in a free, secular and democratic society just like everyone else.
00:02:39.820Yeah, indeed. And of course, when it comes to terrorism,
00:02:41.880as you know better than I, Goldie,0.87
00:09:19.380It's been viewed by millions of Iranians, and this is why we all support him, because we know that he will take us from a dictatorship to a democracy.
00:09:30.040And just on that business of a dictatorship, on that issue of a dictatorship, Goldie, just give us some idea of what life has been like for Iranians over the last bunch of years since this horrendous rule has been up and running.
00:09:44.900it's hell it's hell it's it's a living nightmare um iran is actually the greatest uh occupation in0.88
00:09:54.360middle east right now so iran has been occupied by the islamic republic for the last 47 years1.00
00:10:00.120um music music is banned joy is banned singing is banned um iranians can be murdered at any time0.98
00:10:07.880for any reason you have no human rights um you it's it's it's horrible it's it's it's the worst
00:10:14.480thing you can imagine um and you know iranians are just fighting for for for freedom like they
00:10:19.940they just want to have you know we just want to have the same rights in iran that people in the
00:10:24.960uk or you know other places have and um that in and of itself is enough for the islamic republic0.52
00:10:31.460to want to murder iranians and are these those that have been in charge the ayatollah and those
00:10:38.140surrounding him um just a point of interest on that goldie are they genuinely wedded to a
00:10:45.080theological doctrine of islamism or are they just using that as a front for power uh whilst probably0.84
00:10:54.240enjoying the trappings of all manner of ostentatious and opulent ways of life what is the truth there
00:10:59.880i i think it's a mix of both i think some of them do genuinely believe but i think there are a lot
00:11:07.060of them who are just using religion as a tool of control. And the reason I say this is because
00:11:14.040many of them and many of their children actually live lavish lives in Western countries, whether
00:11:20.360it's in the United States or the UK or Canada or elsewhere. So these people are basically using
00:11:26.460Iran as an ATM. They have stolen hundreds of billions of dollars of Iranian money and they're0.89
00:11:33.260using it to fund their lavish lifestyles in the West. These people are criminals. They're Islamic0.99
00:11:38.800terrorists. And, you know, they're just the most evil, vile people you can ever think of. It's the1.00
00:11:46.720Islamic Republic. These protests have been going on for about 13 days, I think, end of December,
00:11:51.50028th of December or something. I think they began. It's hard to put a timeline on this,
00:11:56.980Goldie, but what is your own instinct as to when a new power can be up and running and
00:12:06.480taking Iran in the right direction? When do you imagine Pahlavi would be in charge again?
00:12:14.180I mean, if it was up to me, I would say right now. I would say right now. But again, we
00:12:18.440are in the final push. No one can predict what's going to happen. But what I do know
00:12:22.880is that we are now receiving news of mass slaughter1.00
00:12:27.920across the country by the Islamic Republic.
00:12:30.280However, we're also starting to see some videos trickling in
00:12:33.160of Iranians who right now are starting to go back out into the streets
00:12:37.040because His Royal Highness King Nezapahlavi has asked Iranians
00:12:41.340to go out and demonstrate again tonight en masse
00:12:50.240But we're already seeing people going out there.0.94
00:12:52.140And I have a feeling that despite the violence from the Islamic Republic, even more Iranians are going to go out tonight because it really is now or never.0.98
00:13:01.480And this is the final push. And all I can ask and pray for is for President Trump to intervene as soon as possible to prevent more slaughter of innocent Iranians at the hands of these Islamic terrorists.0.99
00:13:14.160And going forward even further, you see Iran, your country of birth, your own country, as a moderate Muslim country on the world stage, as distinct from an Islamic dictatorship.0.99
00:13:28.960Would that define, more or less, how you're referring to the future?
00:13:33.240No. Iran is not a Muslim country. Less than 20% of Iranians actually identify as Muslim.1.00
00:14:33.540We're fighting for a secular democracy.
00:14:35.480Yeah, which frankly, as far as I can see, of all the different methods of running countries around the world is probably the only most logical and, frankly, intelligent way forward.
00:14:46.380What a game changer that would be, not just for Iran, but for that region as well.
00:14:51.420I mean, the message that would send out globally is absolutely huge.