Interviewer: A reporter of the Liberal newspaper published in Tokyo and Osaka
Question: [You are going to establish an Islamic government in Iran. The image of such a government is not clear; please explain how the future government will be? Is there any other sample of such a government to mention as an example?]
Answer: At the time, when a nation is crying out, protesting against the strangulation and dictatorship in the country and calls for freedom, or when economic poverty has dominated the country, and besides the legendary wealth of a few people, most of the thirty and something million population of the country is struggling with poverty and the nation calls for the end of poverty and fair distribution of wealth among the people and when the nation sees the development of moral corruption and extinction of all Islamic intellectual values and calls for the establishment of a society in which the criteria of privileges is honesty and faith in God, or when the nation sees its country is dependent on the foreigners and due to its dependence, it cannot decide about it own fate, then the nation cries out that we do not want the Shah, but then the US president explicitly supports him. And the US advisors in Iran oblige the army to keep the Shah in power and to massacre the people, because the nation protests the interference of foreigners in its country's inner affairs and because the foreigners are robbing its country, and because the nation asks for independence for its country and recites the slogan of Islamic government to reach its objectives. I don't guess that there is some vague point in the nation's demands. An Islamic government is a government that is a hundred percent dependent on public vote; in a way that every Iranian individual feels that he is determining and making the fate of himself and his country through his vote. And as the majority of the nation is Muslims, it is almost definite that the Islamic rules and principles should be well observed in all fields. Those who have betrayed the country and have collected wealth violating Islamic criteria, those who have violated other's rights, have no right to interfere in the government's affairs. And we hope that Iran will be the first country to achieve such a government; a government in which every Iranian individual can criticize the highest ranking governmental official, and impeach him, freely, and without fearing any danger; a government in which money and other empty values that are made by money have no role in determining the fate of the government, but there are the Islamic high values that have dominance in the government.
Q: [How would your foreign relations be? Do you think that oil can be an effective weapon in this regard? How would you use it?]
A: We will show for the first time that not only in our foreign relation we will refrain from signing any treaty that is against our nation, but that we will not establish any relations with other countries at the price of violating their rights, even if that relation is to the interest of the Iranian nation. While we try to preserve our natural sources from the plunder of foreigners, we will not capture the wealth of the others, although it is to the interest of the Iranian nation. Islamic law does not permit the violation of a single person's rights, no matter if he is an Iranian or a foreigner. We will never make a weapon out of our oil to oppress the others, but we will at the same time protect it from being wasted. And those who are supporting the Iranian nation's movement today, will have priority over others tomorrow.
Q: [Who will lead Iran in your opinion? Under what conditions will you accept to reconcile with the current regime? Under which conditions will your return to Iran?]
A: People should lead Iran who are efficient and honest, and those on whom the nation can rely and those who are elected by the nation's vote and those whose efficiencies are approved by the nation according to Islamic rules. But reconciling with the regime means betraying Islam and Muslims, and for the same reason, reconciliation with the regime would be impossible under any condition. And about my return to Iran, I will return to Iran immediately, whenever I feel that I can serve my nation more.
Q: [I guess some reforms should be made in Iran. What are the priorities?]
A: No, if with superficial changes every thing was supposed to become alright, the situation would not lead to this. Principle changes should be made.
Q: [Public strike has paralyzed the daily life, no fuel is found inside the country, the electricity is cut, the price of foodstuff is rising rapidly; on the other hand, due to the banishment of foreigners from Iran, the country may be hindered from development due to lack of experienced and professional technicians. Do not you think that your daily increasing call for Iranians may increase the sufferings of the Iranians?]
A: Yes, our nation should have taken measures before the penetration of betrayers in the country and should have uprooted this evil tree. But as it is fifty years that with the support of its foreign masters, the Pahlavi regime has inserted its claws in the body of the oppressed Iranian nation, cutting the roots of this 50- year-old tree will be followed by many sufferings, which all reveals the vast amount of the atrocities made by the Shah and his masters. And today, the horrendous face of the regime is unveiled and the world sees the savage nature of these enemies of humanity. If at a time, one has doubted the necessity of struggling against them, he is no longer doubtful today, and the Iranian nation should destroy these savage criminals at any price, so that the way is paved for the nation's prosperity.
Q: [How long would you continue prohibition of oil exports?]
A: We have asked the respectable religious, deprived workers and employees of the Oil Industry to continue their strike till the overthrow of the Shah.
Q: [How would your relations with Japan be?]
A: In case our most significant principles, which we are not going to lost at any price, are observed, we will not refrain from any kind of relation. Particularly sound economic relation, through which, we can save our country from the assembly industry, and make an appropriated industry in the country through making use of Japan's developed industry.
Q: [What would you do, if France refuses to extend your residence in this country?]
A: The lands of God are so vast.
Q: [Industrialized countries including Japan, will sooner or later suffer from the decrease in Iran's oil export. Do you predict any changes in oil export in the future?]
A: It is for many years that the Iranian nation is suffering from the export of its oil to other countries, on their interest and on its own loss. And today, the Iranian nation has violated no right, it just does not let the other violate its rights, and if the very point offends the others, it does not matter. They were and still are, the heads of these industrialized countries that plundered the natural sources of the Iranian nation and many other poor countries in the world, and at the same time supported and encouraged the puppet and betrayer governments of these countries, before the eyes of these oppressed nations. The Iranian nation has not yet forgotten the 2500- year-old anti-national and anti-Islamic festivals. When have the Industrialized countries sympathized with the oppressed Iranian nation, that now they expect Iranians to sympathize with them?