Reza Pahlavi sets out ambition to lead country his father once ruled, but many question his level of popular support
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, has predicted the country’s Islamic regime will fall and claimed he is “uniquely” placed to head a successor government.
His bid to assume the leadership of a post-Islamic regime Iran follows weeks of mass protests that have left thousands dead after being bloodily suppressed by security forces.
His credentials are certain to be challenged by other opponents of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime, given that Pahlavi has not been in Iran since his family fled the country at the beginning of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many question his level of popular support, even though his name has been chanted at some protests.
Calling on the west to help unseat Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, Pahlavi said on Friday that the regime was nevertheless doomed to collapse with or without such assistance.
