My father was the Shah of Iran: Starmer can’t appease the Ayatollah

PARIS, FRANCE – The exiled crown prince of Iran has called on Sir Keir Starmer and other Western leaders to end their “appeasement” of the hardline Islamic regime and help to oust it from power.

Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last Shah of Iran, urged the UK and its allies to “stay on the right side of history” during the country’s “Berlin Wall moment”.

At a press conference in Paris, he insisted that the regime is “near collapse”. He claimed that the family of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may be preparing to flee, and said the ayatollah should stand down for a “fair trial”.

Asked by The i Paper what he would say to Starmer and other world leaders who are hesitant about regime change, he replied: “You have an opportunity today. The worst thing that can happen is for this regime to continue to exist.”

He warned that if even if Iran’s nuclear facilities are destroyed but the current rulers remain in power, they could seek to buy a nuclear weapon from North Korea.

“If the West throws the regime a lifeline, there will be more bloodshed and chaos, because this regime will not stop or surrender after it has been humiliated. It will lash out as long as it is in power. No country and no people are safe.”

Reza Pahlavi addressed the world’s press at at press conference in Paris on Monday (Photo: Joel Saget/AFP)

Pahlavi was 18 when his father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown as Iran’s monarch during a popular uprising against his autocratic regime in 1979.

Now aged 64, he has never returned to his homeland, spending most of his life in the US, where he has campaigned for Iran to become a secular democracy.

Pahlavi insisted he does “not seek political power,” but suggested he could serve the people on an interim basis, “to lead them down this road of peace”. He is eager to develop his 100-day transition plan at a conference with other Iranian opposition figures and business leaders.

He also announced he was establishing a secure platform for people inside the regime to contact his team with information and support, to help co-ordinate a rebellion.

Protesters against the Iranian regime carried flags picturing Reza Pahlavi at a demonstration in London over the weekend (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP)

The US Government has given mixed signals about regime change since its attack on three key Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday night.

Although key members of his team maintain that it is not their goal, President Donald Trump wrote on social media: “If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???”

However, the UK Government has consistently urged Israel, the US and Iran to seek to end the nuclear crisis through talks, offering no backing to Iranian opposition figures.

Starmer says his priority is to “de-escalate the situation, stabilise the region and get the parties back around the table to negotiate,” while the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, insists there is “still an off-ramp” for Iran.

Reza Pahlavi, pictured in 1967, was crown prince of Iran but has not returned to the country since the 1979 revolution (Photo: UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty)

Asked how he would seek to change the minds of Starmer and his counterparts, Pahlavi said they need to realise that the dictatorship’s downfall would be a “win-win.” He said the current situation also presented a unique chance for intervention: “They visibly see the level of fragmentation of the regime and its near-collapse.”

The outside world should also be eager about “empowering a nation seeking liberty,” he said. “The regime is at war with its own people. It is trying to take revenge on the people, executing political prisoners, shutting down the internet, even landlines in the last few days. They are waging war against our own people.

“This is what these world leaders have to recognise, that these are people who want to be with you – the free world – and the only obstacle between them and the free world is this regime. So don’t be intimidated by the regime menace. Trust in a nation that wants peaceful relations.”

Reza Pahlavi, right, on holiday in Switzerland with his family while his father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was still the Shah of Iran (Photo: James Andanson / Sygma via Getty Images)

Historians believe that the decision by the US to allow the Shah – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – to enter the country in 1979, just months after he fled Iran, led to demonstrators storming the American embassy in Tehran, and holding 52 hostages for 444 days.

Pahlavi admitted that world leaders “have always shied away and been fearful of talking to someone like me.” He believes this is because they hold “fear of a regime that takes hostages and intimidates Western governments.”

But now, he said, “I think this is changing. I think we have much more receptive ears.”