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Iran
Monarchists
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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