- 4 hours ago
In an interview with India Today, a German-American human rights activist Gazelle Sharmahd discusses the escalating tensions in Iran and the potential for a transition of power. She asserts that the current situation is not merely a call for regime change but a movement for the 'liberation of a nation from a foreign occupying murderous regime.'
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00:00is the united states locked and loaded for a strike or have gulf countries prevail on the
00:11u.s president donald trump not to give a go ahead to u.s forces to bomb iran at least not as of now
00:18reports indicate countries like saudi arabia qatar oman and turkey have assured the u.s president
00:24they will work to ensure an end game that the u.s wants without firing a single shot and putting
00:31the region and the world in harm's way but is that truly possible and what is the end game a regime
00:38change a u.s aircraft carrier battle group incidentally u.s's abraham lincoln is rushing to
00:43the strait of hormuz from south china sea and the u.s moves around other war assets as war clouds
00:50continue to put the world on edge joining me on this special broadcast is gazelle sharmad she's a
00:58german-american freedom advocate of iranian descent and the spokesperson for the kingdom assembly of
01:05iran incidentally gazelle sharmad is also the daughter of german-american hostage jimmy sharmad
01:12who was kidnapped and killed in 2024 gazelle sharmad welcome on india today information flow right now
01:22remains rather sketchy from iran what are you picking up has the regime put on hold execution
01:30of a large number of demonstrators and protesters hoping that the u.s perhaps will not strike iran
01:39the regime has not stopped executing lynching killing people for the last 47 years absolutely
01:46not will they stop that in this moment when they saw millions and millions and millions of people
01:52all over iran in the streets ready to take down the regime so whatever the the regime is saying
01:59they're saying it to protect themselves um any western government any international um forces that are
02:06out there that are in communication with these occupation forces of the ayatollahs that just
02:13murdered in cold blood with military equipment civilians in the thousands have the obligation to not
02:20listen to their lies and their propaganda but to understand after a genocide takes place the
02:27perpetrators must be taken out of um the the position of power and must be brought in front of an
02:34international tribunal so even if for one second the world would believe the ayatollahs that they would
02:40really stop the killing which they have not the next step is not to say okay go go back to what you
02:46were doing before go back to the killing but to bring to justice these people just that just used
02:52irgc and paramilitary forces to gun down unarmed protesters in the thousands reports indicate countries in
03:02the region are assuring the united states that an end game can be achieved without striking iran do you
03:09believe that and what's the end game a change of regime is that possible without use of force
03:16the millions of iranians in the street have shown that they are determined whether they have assistance
03:23help from the international community or whether they will be abandoned in their cause that they will
03:29take out this regime the only factor to consider is if the people have to do it on their own it will be
03:35more bloodshed it will take longer but they are determined to do it so the the factor that comes
03:43from the outside is not um should we intervene should we not intervene to to determine the outcome
03:48of the regime the outcome of the regime is it is done it is crumbling it is outnumbered by the people
03:54the people are taking over liberating street after street square after square taking back their
04:00country because this is not about regime change or bringing democracy or anything like that this is
04:05about an occupation force of jihadist forces that have occupied iran and the iranian people for almost
04:12half a century so inevitably they will take it back if we intervene like we should have um that means that
04:20we understand that jihadism and the jihadist forces are a global threat to all civilized nation it is a
04:26threat to india it is a threat to the middle east it is the threat to europe to america to everybody out
04:32there so we have an obligation to understand our historic moment of taking out the new genocidal
04:38forces back then it was the nazis that were taken out by by the global community before that it was the um
04:45after that it was the um soviet uh threat that was taken out today the biggest threat to all of
04:52mankind all of humanity all civilized nations and people who want to be at peace are jihadist forces
04:59so there are building two camps one is the camp of the allied which is the indigenous people of the
05:04middle east um europe america people who stand with freedom on the other side we have the jihadist forces
05:13and they are mostly uh controlled by the two biggest heads the ayatollah forces for the shia
05:19and the qatari forces for the sunni that's why we see the alliances between saudi arabia and uh
05:26muslim brotherhood uh backed uh erdogan and qatar coming together standing against america and
05:33threatening america there they're supposed to be nato allies threatening america that if they intervene
05:38they will hold against it so we can see that the world is split into the iranian people are one
05:43side together with the allied forces and on the other side is every jihadist force we have to make
05:49a decision which side we're on the iranian people will succeed it's just a matter of how bloody it will
05:54be and if we are um taking the right steps in history to stand with the right side does change of
06:01regime mean removing ayatollah ali khamenei or president masood pazashkian or is the end game
06:09bringing in raza pehalvi um let's discuss first the term of regime change regime change means like
06:18this was one government of iran we're replacing it by another government of iran no we have to
06:22understand and clarify the propaganda of the regime 1979 was not a change of regime it was not a
06:29revolution it was an islamo-marxist coup that brought in a foreign-backed islamic regime that
06:36is anti-iranian and was installed to destroy iran it killed iranians it took over our culture it took
06:43our over our language it took our our faith our religion our ministries it replaced the iranian flag
06:49it replaced the iranian anthems so the ayatollahs were produced in the islamic schools of najif in in
06:56iraq were transferred to france and brought in on an air france flight by the carter administrations
07:03of these world to invade iran and occupy it so we're not talking about regime change we're talking
07:10about the liberation of a nation from a foreign occupying murderous regime you can compare that
07:17historically to france that was under foreign nazi occupation and the allied forces helped the french
07:25people the french revolution to liberate itself from the outside forces when we're looking at france
07:31there were players on the ground uh jean moulin and the resistance were on the ground uh fighting
07:37against the uh against the nazis that is the people and the colonels that are inside of iran
07:43the colonels from the who are deflecting from the army they're fighting inside but at the same time
07:49france had a leadership outside of france which was in london and that was charles de gaulle charles
07:55de gaulle formed a coalition and was coordinating with the inside so nobody is bringing in reza palavi
08:02the crown prince of iran last year in munich last summer formed a coalition which uh i was there and
08:08everybody can look at it that combined the entire iranian opposition in exile into one unit under one
08:16leadership that works together from the outside with the forces on the ground this is a core
08:21cooperation between the inside and outside to liberate iran once iran is liberated and stabilized
08:28then the iranian people in elections and that was agreed upon all of the factions of the of the
08:34opposition will make their own decision of self-determination to determine what kind of
08:40governments who should be governing and all of that that is in a second stage this stage is about
08:46liberation the second stage will be about self self-determination of the iranian people nobody
08:50else the iranian people will decide gazelle sharma there have been reports uh that there were
08:56revolts even in the past is this one different and if so how and can this revolution as some put it
09:04ensure a regime change because there are some reports that also seem to indicate that after so
09:10many days and weeks it's now petering out there um this is another point that we have to clarify it was
09:18not that there was revolts in the past the revolution um is a continuum so from the moment in 1979 when
09:26the iranians people saw that uh their land was hijacked by arab islamist forces called the ayatollahs
09:33which are foreign to iran they started revolting against this occupation year after year after year
09:40in some years or in some decades the revolts were so big that we could see them from the outside that
09:46is like 2009 when millions and millions were inside of tehran or in 1999 where the students were taking
09:52over all of the universities and revolting or in 2017 2019 2020 22 till 2023 for an entire year for 12
10:02months the people were holding down the streets so we have to understand that this is not like
10:06another time this is the continuation with waves of revolts getting bigger and bigger and bigger
10:12and through the um uh into uh um use of uh citizens journalists and everybody has now a camera on their
10:20iphone and internet we can see more of what is going on inside of iran this is the last stage of these
10:28revolts of the revolution because we saw the bazaar come in the bazaar is the iranian wall street uh wall
10:36street is the last part of all of these um parts of society that switches so seeing the wall street of
10:44iran on the streets right now the complete shutdown of economy seeing for a month before that that the
10:50entire fleet of um of big rig uh trucks in iran and we're on weeks and weeks of strikes shows one
10:58thing the entire economy is not in the hands of the regime anymore it's in the hands of the people
11:03they decide if they can completely shut down everything or not so the power of the people the
11:10power of the streets the power of seeing all over in 100 cities at the same time with coordination of
11:16the outside people being there plus the trauma the shell shock of losing thousands of of their loved
11:23ones shows that this will not stop what do you expect like people being shot in the eyes shot in
11:29the streets and then going back and saying okay we're done now in it's inevitable that the regime
11:35will fall but again it is up to us to decide how much bloodshed we allow them to do on their way out
11:42you know there are some reports that indicate more than 20 000 people or between 18 and 20 000 people
11:48are in custody a human rights organization in norway compiled information they were able to gather to
11:55indicate about 3 400 or close to 3 400 people had been killed and there are many who remain on death
12:02row what have you been able to gather and in your view is a delay very damaging for the cause is the
12:12world bithering um is there an opportunity that's actually being lost right now let me correct one
12:18more time um the the verbiage that we're using um thousands of people are not being detained and they're
12:24being kidnapped uh people are not on death row death row is a legal term in a legal state where you have a
12:30legal system uh a judge you know laws uh and justice as justice system where you would have committed a crime
12:39and now are punished based on the crime with a death sentence what the regime is doing they have
12:45no laws they have no justice they have no president they have no nothing this is an occupation one more
12:50time they are lynching people this is lynching the international community has to understand that
12:55lynching of people by a genocidal occupying force that is shooting people in the streets hanging people
13:01on the streets is crimes against humanity so the international community has a duty to intervene as we said
13:09european countries can start forming what we did to the nazis back then the nuremberg trials the u.n was
13:16created to take down the uh and to bring to justice people like the um hitler regime and and the fascist
13:24forces that had committed genocide this is a genocidal scape like nobody can ignore anymore what the
13:31regime is doing to these people so we outside of iran have an obligation to intervene whether it's to
13:37stop the killing whether it is to go by in by force and stop the killing to help the iranian people or
13:43to start the justice process by taking out from the highest commanders of the jihadist ayatollah forces
13:51to every single judge to every single person to everything in this chain of commands that is lynching
13:57innocent people because they want their country back because they want freedom because they want
14:02to breathe so this is based on international law our duty to do that
14:07multiple eyewitnesses describe organized black clad groups behaving like commandos who infiltrate
14:18alongside genuine protesters and they are the ones who are targeting members of the regime or the
14:26security forces how confident are you that activists uh are are actually being able to get across their
14:34message and those from the regime are not infiltrating into this uh into the gathering uh that wants a
14:42change there are many who say that the presence of uh a violent mob or an armed mob actually helps
14:51justify the regime's unprecedented and violent crackdown um i'm not quite sure which uh arms groups you're
15:00referring to there are of course armed faction of uh iranian forces which are in the mountains which
15:06are in the kurdistan region baluchistan the south so these are uh part of the iranian people there are
15:13though and this is in every country unfortunately because jihadism is a is a force that has infiltrated
15:18every nation on earth right now that there are jihadist factions also from isis from from qatar
15:25is sending their their their their people out there so what we have to look at uh if we want to
15:30determine if they're good or if they're bad is pretty much listen to what they're saying if they're
15:35shooting into people and screaming allah akbar they're not on the right side of the iranian people
15:39the iranian people are an anti-islamic force they are against jihadist so there were some reports
15:45that seem to indicate that protesters were chanting reza pehalvi's name now they're not necessarily
15:52in favor of uh a monarchy returning to iran uh perhaps they also want democracy or are these people
16:00who have nowhere else to turn so the moment they utter reza pehalvi's name uh inside iran is this a
16:08genuine political preference in your view or the loudest rejection of the islamic regime in iran the
16:16islamic republic of iran uh all of the above first of all the the slogans are very clear
16:23and when we in the west report about it and say this is an economic uprising show me one slogan that
16:29says we want more bread we want better there is no such slogan so nobody is on the streets because of
16:36economic breakdown economic breakdown is is there it's bad nobody's in the streets for that the
16:41people are in the streets shouting very precisely down with the islamic regime that means a complete
16:47rejection of the arab islamic forces of the ayatollahs and that doesn't just mean that you take the supreme
16:54uh taco we call it but they call it supreme leader and replace him with somebody else the the people are
17:00rejecting the entirety of the islamic regime so that is number one number two when they're calling javid
17:08shah javid shah means long live the king that is one to be interpreted as a call for um a kingdom iran
17:16has always been a kingdom a kingdom is not in in contrast to democracy or values or anything as we
17:23said one of the biggest kingdoms was under cyrus the great who was the founder uh the first charter of
17:29human rights have been written by him in history so so so again this is not like a dictatorship or
17:36something this is just the iranians people's identity for a kingdom javid shah also goes back to the um
17:42last government of iran before it was hijacked under a coup by the arab islamist forces it was under
17:48uh the dynasty of the palavis and javid shah was was sat in the iranian army under in ceremony so it is
17:55uh not just nostalgia but saying we don't want anything that happened after 1979 is not iranian
18:01and we want to go back to being iranian not going back in history and like whatever it is a future
18:08called is a a future iran but with the values before arab islamic occupation are there many
18:16monarchists uh in iran absolutely absolutely there are nobody can deny that anymore are they all calling
18:23on the crown prince reza palavi because they want monarchy not necessarily we will see that after
18:28the elections every single person has one road but what they're calling for in reza palavi whether
18:33they call him a king a prince or just mr palavi or whatever they they're calling him doesn't matter
18:40the crown prince of iran has currently the role of transitional leader so anybody whether it's
18:49somebody who wants a republic or a monarchy or this or this or that is calling on him to lead the
18:54transition to freedom western um leadership needs to meet with a single person to coordinate
19:03best the transition because it can go into chaos it can become unfortunately for some time what we saw
19:10in syria or other places happening but we when we coordinate with the leadership of the iranian
19:16resistance outside we can make this much smoother we can make it a much more civil and coordinated
19:23and help them to do this transition so these are the different reasons why people are calling
19:27on him it is undeniable that they're not calling for anybody else or any other faction that comes up
19:33like the islamo-marxist mujahideen or like any like whatever remnants of the regime that say we will
19:39reform we will take ayatollah khamenei out and bring ayatollah none of this is is what the iranian
19:47people want the will of the iranian people is clear self-determination means iranians iran belongs
19:52to iranians their leadership is clear inside of the country there's leadership and outside of the
19:57country there is prince crown prince reza palavi that forms the coalition of all of these forces and
20:03coordinates with the inside the colonels of the armies uh of the artesh and and the underground
20:08resistance to liberate iran together so let me for a moment take you back to 1979 and then bring
20:16you again to 2026 in 1979 ayatollah rahulah khamenei he emerged as this unifying symbol to eliminate
20:26rivals once in power today when there are chants of reza palavi in 2026 does this mean from outside
20:35raza palavi would be able to come in and ensure he can take over power um is there a clear democratic
20:43road map or are we looking at the situation each day um and hoping that something would happen that
20:52there's a regime change and raza palavi would would come in this is absolute propaganda that
20:59that ayatollah khamenei came in as a unifying force let's let's let's explain 1979 in a little
21:07simpler term so people can really follow um 1979 was the era of the cold war so iran was part of the
21:16allies iran together with america and allied forces um were were at threats of uh the communists of the
21:23of the soviet union and everything and so the the the the the threat of communism the threat of of of of of um
21:30communist factions all over western nations was a real threat uh many um uh because iran geographically
21:39is at border to russia and everything uh many uh infiltrators came to iran so there was of course in
21:45any like in any other country unrest political dissatisfaction were there human rights violations
21:51absolutely but so in any other country because again this is cold war era that we're talking about
21:57so were there protests in the streets against the shah yes what were the grievances more rights for
22:03women uh more political freedoms that yada yada yada just like in france just like in america just like
22:09we had like uh protests in america just like you can see today if you if you take a snapshot of
22:14uh some um anti-trump rallies here in america but especially i'm in california you would think
22:21the entire population of america is against trump because look at how many protesters there are
22:26well elections showed you that the majority of americans voted for president trump again so that the
22:32reality of what the name
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