Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 11 april 2017
In age of Trump: China says navy rescues ship

Iran’s long-exiled prince wants a revolution from pirates, omits India role

JON GAMBRELL that it cannot,” Pahlavi look toward Iran’s past. He CHRIS BODEEN
Associated Press told The Associated Press. pointed to recent demon- Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emir- “People have given up strations at the tomb of the BEIJING (AP) — China’s navy says its forces rescued
ates (AP) — Iran’s exiled with the idea of reform pre-Islamic King Cyrus the a freighter from attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden
crown prince wants a rev- and they think there has to Great, which have been over the weekend. Missing from the report was any
olution. be fundamental change. claimed by a variety of mention of the participation of the Indian navy, which
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Now, how this change can anti-government forces as says it dispatched four ships and a helicopter to pro-
the last shah to rule before occur is the big question.” a sign of unrest. Under his vide cover for the action.
The omission was likely no accident. Deep distrust per-
sists between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants, and
in recent days, China has angrily denounced New Del-
hi over a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai
Lama to an Indian border area that China claims as its
own territory.
Asked about that lack of mention of India’s part in the
operation, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua
Chunying referred questions to the defense ministry,
where no spokesman was immediately available for
comment.
“We believe the aforementioned operation demon-
strated the effectiveness of China’s naval forces in the
field of fighting against pirates, as well as China’s im-
age as a responsible major country in safeguarding
regional peace and stability,” Hua told reporters at a
daily news briefing on Monday.
“We are always positive toward international counter-
piracy operations,” she added.
No casualties or damage were reported in the inci-
dent, which unfolded between Saturday night and
early Sunday morning.
The Chinese navy’s statement said a distress signal
was received late Saturday from the captain of the
Tuvalu-flagged OS35 saying it was under attack by
Iran’s long exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi speaks during an interview at the Associated Press
bureau in Washington, Thursday, April 6, 2017. Pahlavi is hoping for a peaceful revolution in his an unknown number of pirates aboard a single boat.
homeland in the age of Donald Trump. But whether Pahlavi could translate nostalgia for the Iran’s Steaming to the area, the missile frigate Yulin then cir-
monarchy and its pre-Islamic Republic past remains unseen. cled the ship while its helicopter hovered above.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) The statement said 16 members of the Chinese spe-
cial forces were lowered onto the ship by helicopter
the 1979 Islamic Revolu- Pahlavi left Iran at age 17 father’s secular and pro- at dawn Sunday and released the 19 crew members
tion, has seen his profile for military flight school in Western rule, Iran experi- from the strong room where they had taken shelter,
rise in recent months fol- the U.S., just before his can- enced a rapid moderniza- while also searching the ship to ensure there were no
lowing the election of U.S. cer-stricken father Moham- tion program financed by further threats. The statement made no mention of
President Donald Trump, mad Reza Pahlavi aban- oil revenues. any arrests or other contact with the pirates.
who promises a harder line doned the throne for exile. “If you look at the legacy India’s account differed slightly but did mention Chi-
against the Shiite power. The revolution followed, that was left behind by na’s participation.
Pahlavi’s calls for replac- with the creation of the Is- both my father and my A statement from the Indian defense ministry said the
ing clerical rule with a lamic Republic, the take- grandfather ... it contrasts Indian navy ships Mumbai, Tarkash, Trishul and Aditya
parliamentary monarchy, over of the U.S. Embassy in with this archaic, sort of had been sailing toward the Mediterranean Sea when
enshrining human rights Tehran and the sweeping backward, religiously root- they responded to the distress call and “rapidly closed
and modernizing its state- away of the last vestiges ed radical system that has the merchant vessel” by early Sunday.” After an Indian
run economy could prove of the American-backed been extremely repres- navy helicopter flew over on Sunday morning, crew
palatable to both the monarchy. sive,” Pahlavi said. members emerged and “ascertained that the pirates
West and Iran’s Sunni Gulf Yet the Pahlavis and the Since the U.S. election, had fled the ship at night.”
neighbors, who remain sus- age of the monarchy have Pahlavi has given a grow- “Subsequently, in a show of international maritime co-
picious of Iran’s intentions retained their mystique in ing number of media inter- operation against piracy, a boarding from the nearby
amid its involvement in the Iran, even as the major- views, including with Breit- Chinese navy ship went on board the merchant ship,
wars in Iraq, Syria and Ye- ity of its 80 million people bart, the far-right website while the Indian naval helicopter provided air cover
men. weren’t alive to experi- once run by Trump’s chief for the operation,” the statement said.
But the Mideast is replete ence it. Television period strategist, Steve Bannon. India and China fought a brief but bloody border war
with cautionary tales pieces have focused on Pahlavi also has sent letters in 1962 and each makes large claims on territory con-
about Western govern- their rule, including the re- to the Trump administra- trolled by the other. That includes India’s remote north-
ments putting their faith in cent state TV series “The tion. eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, to which the Da-
exiles long estranged from Enigma of the Shah,” the Gauging national senti- lai Lama traveled last week amid angry denunciations
their homelands. Whether most expensive series ever ment toward restoring the from Beijing. Hua, the foreign ministry spokeswoman,
Pahlavi can galvanize nos- produced to air in the monarchy in Iran is impos- said last week that the visit “severely harms China’s in-
talgia for the age of the country. While incorporat- sible, especially after the terests and the China-India relationship,” and that Chi-
Peacock Throne remains ing romances or mobsters crackdown that followed na did not consider it an Indian internal affair.
unseen. into the tales, all uniformly the country’s disputed The Dalai Lama and his followers have been living
“This regime is simply ir- criticize the royal court. 2009 election. in exile in northern India since they fled Tibet after a
reformable because the But Pahlavi, 56, insists Continued on Page 27 failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. q
nature of it, its DNA, is such young Iranians increasingly