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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
The several monarchist political parties supported the
restoration of a royalist regime in Iran. With varying degrees of
enthusiasm the monarchists contended that Reza Cyrus Pahlavi, the
eldest son (born 1960) of the last shah, was the legitimate ruler
of the country. The former crown prince proclaimed himself Shah
Reza II in 1980 following his father's death. Subsequently, he
announced that he wanted to reign as a constitutional monarch and
have a role similar to the role of the king of Spain. The most
active monarchist group has been the Paris- based National
Resistance Movement of Iran under the leadership of Shahpour
Bakhtiar, the last royalist prime minister. The National Resistance
Movement's official position was to restore the 1906 constitution
as its original drafters intended, with a shah that reigns rather
than rules. In 1983 Bakhtiar's group agreed to cooperate with
another Paris-based party, the Iran Liberation Front, which was led
by elder statesman and former royalist prime minister Ali Amini. In
general, the monarchist parties have been weakened by personality
conflicts among the several leaders. When Manuchehr Ganji, a former
royalist cabinet officer, broke with Amini in 1986, many Iran
Liberation Front followers joined him in forming a new rival party
called the Banner of Kaveh, after the legendary pre-Islamic
blacksmith hero who defeated an evil tyrant and restored the rule
of ancient Iran to a just shah.
Data as of December 1987
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