I went to the front, but I never participated in the war itself.

If you look at the discourse before the revolution, whether it is the left communist, whether it is the right secularist...the entirety of this discourse was such that it encouraged the kind of ascendancy for a man like Ayatollah Khomeini.

Khomeini obviously had many problems, but he had one clever side to him. He never made economic promises to people and as a result, he never led to dissatisfaction in this perspective. Because they need to get votes, they use misleading slogans. And this leads to rising expectations. I had a personal experience.

There is no possibility of a public demonstration [in Iran] of such defiance, but these defiant acts are certainly going on.

It was universal pressure on the regime to secure my release. International pressure was certainly helpful in my release.

We can certainly be on the same side and the same front with the workers and with the oppressed people of Iran. We can certainly be on the same front with them.

I, too, am against the dismantlement of Iran.