Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said on Saturday he is ready to lead Iran’s transition “once the Islamic Republic falls”.
As the war in Iran entered its third week, Pahlavi – the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – said he has been working in recent months to develop a transition plan in case the Iranian regime collapses, to ensure the country does not experience any disruption in governance.
Pahlavi said in a social media post that “capable individuals” have been identified both inside and outside Iran to lead what he called a “transitional system.”
“The transitional system, under my leadership, will be ready to assume the governance of the country once the Islamic Republic falls and establish order, security, freedom and the conditions for Iran’s prosperity and prosperity in the shortest possible time,” he said.
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Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said on March 14 that he is prepared to lead Iran’s transition if the current regime were to collapse. (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
Pahlavi has lived in exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled Iran’s monarchy and established the Islamic Republic.
He has tried in recent years to position himself as a unifying opposition figure and has said he would help guide a transition of power from theocracy to democracy in Iran.
In a message addressed to his “countrymen,” Pahlavi said his plan to rule the country would fall within the framework of the “Iran Prosperity Project.”
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In this photo obtained by Iran’s ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, looks on in Tehran on October 13, 2024. (Hamed JAFARNEJAD/ISNA/AFP via Getty Images)
He said many compatriots with valuable experience and expertise “have declared their willingness to participate in the reconstruction of the country and serve the homeland.”
Since the start of joint US-Israel operations, nearly 50 regime figures have been killed, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was elected this week by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the country’s new supreme leader.
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Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled crown prince, said the Islamic Republic was “crumbling” and called for a democratic transition after recent military attacks by the US and Israel. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
“Only a clean break will ensure that we not only achieve a democratic solution and alternative to this regime, but that there will also be people who are not directly connected to this regime in any form,” he said.
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Pahlavi said the Iranian people must decide their country’s leadership and that “only the ballot box should determine the outcome and who will be responsible for our country in the future.”
“I think we will expect every administration, including of course the current Trump administration, to recognize that the best way to help the Iranian people is indeed to allow them to make that choice freely and to support that choice as a Western democracy, as the leading democracy in the world,” he said.
