The latest slogans in Iran say ‘Obama, Obama are you with them or with us.’ What does that really mean? It means we expect more solidarity and suppor… - Reza Pahlavi

Sometimes people ask me who are the future leaders of Iran... I say I don't know who they are, but I know that they exist by the thousands. They are the artists and engineers; they are poets and businessmen; they are entrepreneurs and they are there -- waiting to inherit this future... And it is, by God, our obligation, our duty to the nation, to help them the best way possible to minimize the toll and the cost of change.

… a good university where one can study in peace and freedom may seem common place to you. But not so for many thousands of students in my homeland whose eager young minds remain constrained and constantly shackled by a closed and dogmatic atmosphere that has been ruthlessly imposed on them by an unpopular dictatorship. Consequently, universities in my country are not places for critical learning, and students are not given the kind of opportunities that they need to freely debate contemporary issues or contemplate the shape of the future in the manner that is common practice here in the West.

There was excess [during the Shah's reign] by some members of the Iranian SAVAK [secret police], there was a lot of repression, there were unnecessary acts such as torture that I never condone and in fact condemn.