The exiled Crown Prince of Iran took to social media Tuesday to encourage dissident Iranians to rise up and help topple the Islamic Republic’s oppressive, 46-year hold on the nation.
Reza Pahlavi, 64, is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran and his third wife Farah Diba. He was officially named Crown Prince of Iran at age seven in 1967 during his father’s coronation. The Islamic revolution overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, forcing the shah and his family into exile.
Pahlavi, the founder and leader of the exiled opposition group, National Council of Iran, said in a statement to “compatriots” that the Islamic regime “has reached its end and is falling” and that “what has begun is irreversible.”
“Khamenei has hidden underground like a frightened mouse and has lost control of the situation,” Pahlavi posted on X. “The future is bright and together we will get through this sharp turn in history.”
In these difficult days, my heart goes out to all the defenseless citizens who have been harmed, and who have fallen victim to Khamenei’s warmongering and delusions. I have worked for years to keep our homeland from being caught in the fire of war.
The end of the Islamic Republic is the end of its 46-year war with the Iranian nation.
The regime’s apparatus of repression is collapsing. All it takes is a popular uprising to end this nightmare forever.
Now is the time to stand up; it is time to take back Iran. Let us all come together, from Bandar Abbas to Bandar Anzali, from Shiraz to Isfahan, from Tabriz to Zahedan, from Mashhad to Ahvaz, from Shahrekord to Kermanshah; let us bring an end to this regime.
Pahlavi urged fellow Iranians not to worry about the future, saying “Iran will not suffer from civil war and instability” after the Islamic Republic falls. “We have a plan for Iran’s future and its prosperity. We are ready for the first hundred days after the fall, the transition period, and the establishment of a national and democratic government, for the Iranian people and by the Iranian people,” he wrote.
The exiled prince said he may be with his compatriots soon.
Pahlavi also had a message for Iranian military, law enforcement, security, and government forces: “Do not stand in front of the Iranian nation to preserve a regime whose collapse has begun and is certain. Do not sacrifice yourself for the rotten regime. Save your lives by standing by the nation. Play a historic role in the transition from the Islamic Republic; and participate in building the future of Iran.”
Pahlavi ended his missive promising that a “free and prosperous Iran lies ahead of us.”
At age 17, as a cadet of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, Pahlavi was reportedly sent to the United States to continue his pilot training. In August 1978, he enrolled in a one-year pilot training program at the former Reese Air Force Base, TX. He left the base in March 1979, four months earlier than planned, following the Islamic revolution.
Pahlavi eventually obtained a BSc degree in political science through correspondence from the University of Southern California in 1985. He is fluent in English and French in addition to his native Persian.