On Friday 23 October 2026, Prince Reza Pahlavi, in an article in the French daily Le Figaro, asked the candidates in France's presidential election to commit to four actions on Iran before the vote. Prince Reza Pahlavi's press office published the text of the appeal on its official channel.
According to Prince Reza Pahlavi, the four commitments are: supporting the Iranian people's struggle for freedom; condemning the Islamic Republic's mass crimes, including the killing of more than 40,000 Iranians in the Dey uprising; defending the Iranian people's free access to the internet; and protecting Iranians living abroad from the Islamic Republic's threats.
Violence that never stayed within Iran's borders
In the article, Prince Reza Pahlavi recalled that the Islamic Republic's violence has never been confined to Iran's borders. He cited the 1983 terrorist attack on the Drakkar building in Beirut, which took the lives of 58 French soldiers, as well as the assassinations of opponents of the Islamic Republic on French soil and terrorist plots in Europe.
The article's publication coincided with the anniversary of that attack: the bombing of the French paratroopers' headquarters in Beirut took place on 23 October 1983 and is still regarded as one of the deadliest attacks on the French army since the Second World War. Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of the Pahlavi era, was also killed by agents of the Islamic Republic in the suburbs of Paris in 1991.
Iran's freedom, Europe's security
Prince Reza Pahlavi stressed that supporting Iran's freedom is not merely a moral responsibility but, in his words, a necessity for the security of France, Europe and the Middle East. His message to French politicians is to see policy towards the Islamic Republic not as a side issue of foreign policy but as part of France's own national security.
The appeal comes as the race for France's spring 2027 presidential election has begun, and France's large Iranian community is one of the main centres of rallies in support of Iran's national revolution in Europe. Prince Reza Pahlavi had earlier warned of the danger of extremist Islamism reaching Europe, and in recent weeks the Naumann Foundation's Freedom Prize has put him in the spotlight of European politicians.
Prince Reza Pahlavi asked France's presidential candidates to treat support for Iran's freedom as part of France's security.
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.