PersianStar

This week, I accompanied Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and Princess Yasmine Pahlavi of Iran as they paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, I write for the Jewish Chronicle. Reza Pahlavi's presence at Auschwitz offered a powerful challenge to the notion that Iran's future must remain hostage to the ideological obsessions of its rulers. His proposal to expand the Abraham Accords into the Cyrus Accords offers a vision of renewed cooperation between Israel and a future democratic Iran. That vision draws on Iran's long history of relations with the Jewish people, dating back to Cyrus the Great, who permitted Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple. For centuries, Jewish communities lived and flourished in Persia. The regime's antisemitism is a political choice that stands in stark contrast to this shared historical heritage, rather than an expression of Iranian history or identity. "The Islamic Republic does not represent Iran,” Pahlavi wrote. “The heirs of Cyrus stand with the Jewish people. And while the regime seeks death and destruction, the Iranian nation is fighting for life and liberty". Standing there, I felt both grief for the six million Jews murdered in Europe and a renewed determination to confront the antisemitism and antizionism that continue to threaten Jewish life today. Yet their presence also offered hope that the hatred cultivated by the ayatollahs in Tehran need not define Iran's future, and that the Iranian and Jewish peoples may once again build a relationship founded on mutual respect, friendship and peace. As the Crown Prince wrote: "A free Iran will once again stand for peace, life and human dignity. Light will prevail over darkness.” thejc.com/opinion/at-auschwi…,