“Today, my best friends are Jewish people. They are an amazing, principled people. My wife and I are proud to stand with Israel and the Jewish community. When I visited Israel for the first time last year, I felt at home. I told the Knesset that they shouldn’t be afraid to target Iran’s nuclear sites, IRGC bases and the residences of high-ranking government officials.
“If the West were to launch such strikes, it would have the support of millions and millions of Iranians who, thirsty for freedom and democracy, have been waiting for such a moment. I have faced a lot of criticism and threats for this stance, but I think that it’s the only way, and I feel confident in saying 80 per cent of Iranians would agree with me.
“I am as outspoken now as I have ever been, because Islamism has become really prominent after October 7 and our policymakers don’t seem to know that it is already on our shores, using Western democracy to subvert and destroy that democracy.
“It has become very clear in the last 16 months that the Iranian regime is finished, and they know that better than anyone. Imagine what we, the great nations of Israel and a post-regime Iran can build together afterwards. We can form a great trading bloc, like a Middle East European Union that will be a force for good not just in the region but in the world. It is a vision I fight for every day.”
Afshin Payravi, 63
Payravi is director of the Association of Iranian Human Rights and Allies, which he co-founded just over two years ago to act as the “voice” of Iranians silenced by the Islamic Republic and to highlight its human rights abuses. He was in high school when the Shah was deposed in 1979. He became a leading organiser of the anti-hijab demonstrations that engulfed cities across the country that followed. Having been arrested several times in his youth for his activism, he moved to Britain in 1980. He was one of the speakers at a major hostage rally in Trafalgar Square after October 7.
Afshin Payravi, director of the Association of Iranian Human Rights and Allies[Missing Credit]
“Growing up in Iran, I think we had only one Jewish friend. Once I went into business in the UK, I interacted with lots of Jewish people, and I found them to be the best people to do business with. Their handshake means something.
“Today, I support the Jewish state because of the great historic relationship between the Persian and Jewish peoples. Iran was, we mustn’t forget, one of the first countries in the Middle East to recognise Israel after it declared independence and maintained strong relations with it for many years.
“Political Islam is ruining everybody’s life. I won’t rest until democracy and secularism is returned to Iran with the fall of the regime. There are many Iranian dissidents in this country, together we represent a coalition of the willing.
“I don’t think anyone’s interested in an all-out military confrontation with Iran, but it might be necessary. Taking out the leadership is preferable to taking out the country’s essential infrastructure. In this way, the pager attack by Israel was a very clever stunt.
“Europeans and Democrats in America should be on the side of the Iranian people instead of propping up the regime, which should have fallen five years ago. Today, the regime is a corpse, but one that is not yet buried. All that is required is for us to push it into the grave.”
Dr Namdar Baghaei-Yazdi, 65
Dr Baghaei-Yazdi is involved in numerous Iranian dissident projects. He is a lecturer and research fellow of biotechnology at Westminster University, and vice-president of the UK Iranian Medical Society, general secretary of the Iranian Constitutional Monarch Forum, and board member of the Caspian Cultural Centre, an educational centre based in Acton containing the largest collection of books in the Persian language outside of Iran. His father was a doctor and member of Parliament in Iran who was arrested after the revolution and executed two months later.
Dr Namdar Baghaei-Yazdi[Missing Credit]
“I am not really in favour of strikes on Iran, as I would not want to see our beautiful sites and infrastructure, much of which was built under the Pahlavi dynasty [1925-1979] and still operates well, destroyed.
“However, most of the young people of Iran, who are much braver than we outside the country, would out of their desperation support strikes conducted by countries like the US and Israel. We are in contact and have meetings all the time with young people living in Iran who, yearning for knowledge and a better life, are so vehemently and totally opposed to the regime. With some support, young Iranians would easily be able to topple the regime, which is already imploding.
“Instead, the continued appeasement of the Iranian regime by Western countries such as Britain, France and Germany, are reminiscent… of when Neville Chamberlain returned from meeting with Hitler and proudly declared ‘peace in our time’. Six months later, Hitler brought the world to its knees.
“The Islamic Republic is like a dead horse now, no one wants to bet on it. The sooner it goes, the better.
“And I have no doubt that one of the first things a new government of Iran would do after coming to power will be to establish diplomatic relations and friendship with Israel. The people of Iran love Israel and the Jews. Such a friendship, as outlined by the proposed Cyrus Accords, which was coined by Crown Prince Pahlavi [the son of the deposed Shah] two years ago, would greatly benefit both countries and ancient peoples.”
Vahid Beheshti[Missing Credit]