Europe and the United States should not give a lifeline to the Iranian leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei through talks when his rule is “closer every day” to ending, the son of Iran’s ousted shah said Monday.
Reza Pahlavi, formerly the crown prince and now a key opposition figure, told AFP in an interview in Paris that foreign powers had to seize the chance of what he termed Iran’s “Berlin Wall moment,” with its leaders weakened by days of Israeli airstrikes.
“I can hardly imagine that a regime that is now severely diminished in its capabilities and has been practically humiliated is in the mood for more talks,” he said.
He asserted that Iran, whose top diplomat Abbas Araghchi held talks with European foreign ministers in Switzerland on Friday, had “time and time again” been “deceitful” in negotiations.
“This regime is collapsing… You can facilitate that by standing this time with them, not throwing this regime another lifeline to survive,” said Pahlavi, 64, referring to the Iranian people.
“The end of the regime is near… this is our Berlin Wall moment,” the US-based Pahlavi added, referring to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall that symbolized the downfall of communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe.
Israel has carried out 10 days of air strikes against Iran, focused on targeting its nuclear and missile programs. The United States joined in with unprecedented strikes of its own, including on the heavily fortified Fordo nuclear site.
Khamenei’s whereabouts are unclear and Israel has not ruled out killing him.
On Monday, Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party suggested that Israel had been working with Iranian dissidents.
Speaking to i24, Eliyahu said that “the fact that we are cooperating with the opposition in Iran today is a blessing.”
Pressed by the interviewer on the nature of the cooperation, he replied: “I don’t want to get into details.”
Responding to a question about Eliyahu’s remarks, government spokesman David Mencer later insisted that Israel’s “objective is not regime change in Iran.”
“If a byproduct is the Iranian people shaking off the shackles of this oppressive regime that has oppressed the Iranian people for the past 46 or 47 years, then that would be a welcome objective, although it is not a war aim for the State of Israel,” Mencer said.
Khamenei has led the Islamic Republic since the 1989 death of Ruhollah Khomeini, who spearheaded the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted Pahlavi’s late father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and forced the imperial family to flee Iran.
Reza Pahlavi, without giving further details, said he had information that Khamenei was underground in a bunker “and unfortunately using people as a human shield.”
And he said that he had received “credible reports” that top officials and members of the supreme leader’s family were looking at ways to flee Iran.
He also said he had received indications from people in the security forces that they were willing to switch sides and join the opposition.
“They are beginning to communicate with us from the military, the intelligence apparatus,” he claimed.
Pahlavi had announced earlier Monday the creation of a “formal channel,” a secure platform to handle the “growing volume” of requests from military, security, and police personnel who he said were “breaking with the regime.”
While Pahlavi has long insisted he is not claiming the Iranian throne, he reaffirmed he was ready “to lead this national transition” that would take Iran into a new era after the eventual fall of the Islamic Republic.
He said its new system would be based on the core principles of territorial integrity, individual liberty and separation of religion and state.
“The final form of this future democracy we seek will be for the Iranian people to decide in a national referendum,” said Pahlavi, the figurehead of just one of several movements opposed to the Iranian leadership who are notorious for bickering among themselves.
Asked by AFP if he would see himself as a future president or even king of Iran while leading such a process, he said: “I am stepping in to lead this transition. I don’t believe I need a title to play that role. The important thing is to be someone who can galvanize a nation.”
However, during his stay in Paris, there is no official meeting scheduled with French officials. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that to “seek regime change in Iran through military means” would “lead to chaos.”
But Pahlavi said he was in touch with governments.
“Elements in my team have been at various levels in contact with higher level points of contact with different contacts in Europe and America,” he told AFP.