To interview Amir Jahanchahi, the founder of the Iranian opposition movement ‘Green Wave’, is like getting into a movie of the Bourne Series or being one of the characters of a John le Carré novel.
Jahanchahi is incognito in Madrid and for this reason he does not figure in the register of the luxury hotel where he has given El MUNDO the appointment for the interview. A phone call from Paris informs us that a security agent will escort us to him. The interview will be held only after serious security procedures have been carried out in a Suite viewing the lights of the Paseo de la Castellana.
Up to this point, everything corresponds to the profile of a serious Iranian dissident. He wishes to avoid unnecessary risks. Jahanchahi informs us that the Iranian regime had attempted to infiltrate his organization six month before, but the strict security controls placed on everyone intending to join them, had prevented a regime spy from entering the heart of Green Wave. However, according to Jahanchahi himself, the spy had recorded a number of messages that had been transmitted ‘to and fro’ from Jahanchahi to Mehdi Karrubi – one of the reformist opposition political leaders inside Iran – with a hand watch.
After the creation of the movement, in March 2010, the security system around him is very tight. “Anyone coming from inside Iran, and who wishes to join my organization, must go through a systematic control procedure placed to ensure that the person is not a regime plant”, he explains. Jahanchahi has an intelligence team to test these key disidents, the last of which is a ‘polygraph’ or otherwise known as the Truth machine. “I have selected the best agents of each country to comprise my own intelligence team, for such examinations and and verification”, he says.
Jahanchahi, 51, is an Iranian businessman , exiled since 1979 in France. His father was a Minister of Finance under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He lives between Paris and London, but he refuses to apply for any other nationality and has kept his status as a polical refugee for the last 30 years. He has decided to dedicate his fortune for overthrowing the Islamic Republic – something that may not be achieved through purely peaceful means.
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[The Interview]
Q- You lauched the movement Green Wave in 2010. You did it almost one year after the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ that started after the elections in June 2009, in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had claimed victory for himself. Why did you wait such a longtime before launching this movement?
A- After Ahmadinejad’s Coup d’Etat, I first wanted to see if the opposition leaders inside the country had the capability for responding to the wishes of the Iranian people and leading them to victory. After eight months, as events subsequently confirmed, I came to believe that the opposition inside the country could do nothing as the regime would cut their heads before they even thought of anything about changing the regime – and that was exactly what they actually did.
Q- What are your goals ?
A- My objective, and Green Wave’s objective, is based on two important principles: First, we must promote regime change at any cost and by force if necessary. This means we cannot simply hope that the regime will somehow change, or think that democracy will arrive finding its own way. No, we need to overthrow the regime. Second for this to happen, we need the help of people inside the regime – i.e. from the Revolutionary Guards, from the religious authorities, and from all other structures of the system, as well as all those people who, like me, think that this regime will lead the country towards war and destruction. In my appeal, in March 2010, I asked all those people thinking along similar lines to join me for this purpose before it was too late given that this regime could provoke war in the entire region with worldwide consequences. Since then, many people have joined us.
Q- How many people support your organization in Iran?
A- I have a lot of key people who have infiltrated all organs of the government within the country and in particular amongst the Revolutionary Guards, the armed forces, state TV and Radio, the bureucracy, and most importantly, the religious authorities.
Q- Is it now the right moment to overthrow the regime ?
A- Yes, it is the right moment. I think we will be ready soon to prepare the conducive conditions for a general uprising, with the collaboration of forces mentioned before including the trade unions. I have good contacts with these organizations and when we have decided that the right moment has arrived we will be able to have millions of people in the streets. But this by itself will not be enough because the regime will resort to violence in which many people will die. I know that this regime cannot be changed in a pacific way and that we will have to pay the price for ultimate freedom. But once people start to demonstrate in the streets on ‘D-day’, we will have the backing of the Revolutionary Guards to support the will of the Iranian people. Next we will setup the provisional government with a concerete program of action. This plan was made more than 18 months ago. The only thing we want from USA and Europe is that they let us do our job.
Q- Do you trust the Revolutionary Guards to join your ranks?
A- The Revolutionary Guards are divided between the supporters of Ahmadinejad and those who are pragmatic. These people have made a great deal of money during the past 10 years and they are aware that were they to stay with the wrong side they will lose everything. We will overlook all they have done until now and will allow them to keep their ill gotten gains if they help the people to get their freedom.
Q- The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published a report last Tuesday in which they conclude Iran is seeking atomic bombs that can be mounted on long range missiles. What decisions should the world take?
A- What has been published by IAEA was known to everyone. If my Intelligence service knew about Iran wanting to make nuclear weapons since the last three or four years, then everybody knew about it. It’s not a surprise. But the regime had infiltrated the IAEA and had thus prevented this information from being made public before. IAEA has no doubt about Iran getting the bomb. The only question is how long it will take.
Q- The tightening of sanctions will be enough to stop a nuclear program?
A- Sanctions are a good thing, but it’s too late. They were good five years ago. They are useful, but they will not change the regime, which is the only solution.
Q- Israel is getting ready for war. What would be the consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran?
A- This situation is very worrying. Israel will never accept the Islamic Republic of Iran having a nuclear weapon. This is not a bluff. But it is a dilemma. If Israel attacks Iran, it would be the best gift for Ahmadinejad. The region will explode. If, on the other hand and precisely because of this risk, Israel should not attack, then the regime will expand it’s influence in the region and little by little, it will try and promote various Islamist organizations taking control of each country in the region. The democratic revolutions in the Arab world will be requisitioned by the fundamentalists in each country. Tunisia was the first. We will see how the Muslim Brothers will take control in Egypt. Libya will also follow into the hands of the fundamentalists.
Q- Do you consider the Islamic Republic is encouraging the spread of the fundamentalism in the region after the fall of dictatorships?
A- All fundamentalist groups obtain financing from my country: Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The Iranian people had 32 years ago opted for an Islamic Republic in a democratic way. At that time, we were 36 million people. Today we are 70 million. If after 32 years we have a revolution to overthrow this regime, we are sending a very strong message to the Muslim world that the Islamic Republic was a huge mistake and it does not have to happen again in another country. The key for future peace and stability in the region therefore, lies is in my country.
Q- Don’t you think that the West acts with hypocrisy towards the Islamic Republic because they know there is Israel acting as a watchdog in this matter?
A- You live in your comfort zone and don’t see the reality of the situation. You leave everything for later and put the blame on other people. The problem of the debt is an example. The West is aware of the risk posed by my country. Who is Ahmadinejad? Do you think the power is in the hands of Ali Khamenei?. That is according to the current constitution, but the reality is that step by step Ahmadinejad is taking full control after having mounted his coup d’etat with the backing of the Revolutionary Guards. Ahmadinejad belongs to the Shi’a “twelver” sect of Islam. Most such Iranians believe in the advent of the ‘12th Imam’. But a small sect believes that they must provoke Chaos in order to hasten and prepare the right conditions for the arrival of the ‘12th Imam’ or the ‘Mahdi’ so that the world may be cleansed. Ahmadinejad thinks he has this mission. He wants the nuclear bomb to provoke a war in the region. He knows that possessing the bomb is enough to provoke such a conflict which will not remain confined with just Israel.
Q- Iran also threatens directly Europe and the United States?
A- There is something you should know. After the fall of the Berlin wall, Iran has very quickly purchased a number of bacteriological and dirty bombs. A dirty bomb is like a small atomic bomb prepared in a suitcase that used in a city like Madrid which leave a part of it contaminated for many years. The Islamic regime has placed such devices in a number of major cities around the world.
Q- How do you have such information?
A- How do I know? I know, I cannot say how. During the fall of the regimes in Eastern Europe, the cost of these bombs was between 50 and 80 million dollars. Do you think the regime could not buy them for that price? Do you think they cannot put a diplomatic suitcase in an airplane? If the Islamic regime has bought all that it requires for building a nuclear bomb under the watchful eyes of the IAEA that they could not have purchased a number of such dirty bombs 20 years ago from elements in post-Soviet Eastern Mafia?
Q- Do you think they would use these bombs against Spain?
A- If tomorrow there is war in the region, they will use them for sure.
Q- Then, how could the West stop the Islamic Republic?
A- Western countries cannot do anything. United States has lost control of the Near East and Ahmadinejad’s politics will lead to war. The key to resolving this situation, however, remains in my country and in the hands of the Iranian people. We will eliminate the risk of war by overthrowing the regime.
Q- What would be the cost for the fall of the Islamic Republic?
A- The regime will fall with or without me; this can happen in one year or in three years. But if we can make it fall from inside, the price will be paid entirely by the Iranian people. If not, the price will be paid by everybody and with a regional war that will have far reaching consequences that will also reach Europe.













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