Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has “accepted” the role of transitional leader for Iran as the Islamic regime is pushed out. Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last Shah, went into exile in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution that overthrew his father’s monarchy.
Pahlavi has lived in the United States ever since, but now he says the Iranian people “have called on me to lead the transition after the regime is gone.” To be clear, Pahlavi claims the Iranian people have asked him to come back – not that he has been offered the position by the Trump administration or any other outside authority. He made his announcement in a video. “I have accepted that responsibility,” he said. “Part of their great mandate to me is to return our nation and our foreign relations to normalcy. I will do exactly that. My commitment is to ensure the transition is orderly, the country is stabilized, and Iranians determine their future through the ballot box. We will not repeat the mistakes of past transitions. We will avoid de-Baathification scenarios and maintain as many bureaucrats and public servants in the transition as possible.”
President Donald Trump has said that he intends to be involved in picking the new leader of Iran, but he had previously seemed to dismiss Pahlavi as an option, saying that someone from within might be more appropriate.
“I guess he is. Some people like him,” Trump replied when asked by the press if Pahlavi might be considered. “We haven’t been thinking too much about that,” he added.
Pahlavi, 65, has his own critics. His father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had his own share of human rights controversy during his reign, and the crown prince in exile has been accused of attacking fellow dissidents and failing to build a coalition.
The process of actually transitioning into power while the Islamic regime continues to fight on, however, is much easier said than done.
