Los Angeles (AFP) - The son of Iran's last shah, Reza Pahlavi, denounced Tehran's looming presidential polls as "theatrics" as he launched a hunger strike to support political prisoners of the Islamic regime. In an interview with AFP, Pahlavi called for a boycott of next week's polls organized by the Iranian government that toppled his father in a 1979 revolution that sent the imperial family into exile. The 44-year-old royal said he would not eat or drink, save for water to avoid dehydration, for three days between Friday to Sunday to draw attention to the lack of human, civic and political rights of Iranians. "This is in solidarity with political prisoners inside Iran, to demand their freedom and protest the lack of human rights and political liberties in Iran," he said at the start of his protest. "My message to the people is that this transcends any kind of political grouping or ideology. We are all in it together as Iranians," he said, calling for Iranians to stay away from the June 17 poll... -=- Interview with AFP: (June 10, 2005) http://www.rezapahlavi.org/articles/afp61005.html