Pahlavi takes Freedom Prize for Iranian people in Frankfurt: "We needed this intervention and we do not apologize for it"

Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi accepted Germany's Freedom Prize on behalf of the Iranian people Saturday at Frankfurt's St. Paul's Church, vowing to hand it over "not on foreign soil, but in our capital, Tehran," as tens of thousands of Iranians rallied in the city, Iran International reported.

Pahlavi defended military pressure on the regime after January's massacre of protesters. "An unarmed people cannot be asked to defeat, with bare hands, a state prepared to kill without limit," he said. "We needed this humanitarian intervention and we do not apologize for it." He said the Revolutionary Guards should be the target and civilians spared.

He said a free Iran will make peace with all its neighbors, including Israel, and asked Germany to prosecute the January killings, help Iranians stay online, and reject any deal that keeps the regime in power. "That is how dictatorships end: slowly, and then all at once," he said. "That day is coming to Iran."