Exiled son of last shah offers to serve as interim Iran leader
Exiled from Iran for more than 40 years, Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the country’s deposed Shah, on Monday offered to lead Iran’s transition to democracy after regime change.
Pahlavi held a press conference Monday in Paris amid spiraling tensions in the Middle East, as Iran launched retaliatory strikes against U.S. assets in the region, in retaliation for U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
“We stand at a crossroads, one road leads to bloodshed and chaos, the other to a peaceful and democratic transition,” he said.
“I am here today to submit myself to my compatriots to lead them down this road of peace and democratic transition. I do not seek political power but rather to help our great nation navigate through this critical hour towards stability, freedom and justice.”
Pahlavi has spent 46 years outside Iran since the Islamic Revolution toppled the monarchy headed by his father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The country today is ruled by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pahlavi, during his press conference, issued a direct message to Khamenei to step down and face a “fair trial and due process of law, which is more than you have ever given any Iranian.”
Pahlavi was beginning air force training in the U.S. during the 1979 revolution. Many Iranians have bitter memories of repression under his father’s reign as shah. Iranian opposition movements based abroad are largely disjointed, and it’s unclear how much support any one group or individual has inside the country.
While Trump has floated regime change in Iran, his top officials, like Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said the U.S. target of the strikes were Iran’s nuclear facilities and not its rulers. They have urged Iran to come to the negotiating table for a deal to end their enrichment of uranium.