Yet Washington remains cautious: As of Jan. 8, President Donald Trump appeared reluctant to meet with Pahlavi. In mid-January, White House envoy Steve Witkoff met with Pahlavi — until now, the only high-level American government official to do so, Axios reported. According to polls cited in the article, one-third of Iranians support Pahlavi, while another third do not. Still, it’s a statistic that pollsters say is above any other opposition leader.

“Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has re-entered Iran’s political imagination,” wrote Ali Siadatan, an Iranian-Canadian educator, in the National Post. “Today, his support extends beyond traditional royalist circles, reflecting not nostalgia for the past but a search for continuity amid collapse.”

‘Revolutionary’ government teetering?

From the outside, the Iranian government’s hold on power appears at its weakest point since the shah was overthrown in the 1979 revolution. With street protests and subsequent violent government crackdown — casualty figures are hard to know due to long spells of internet blackouts — the U.S. is keeping a sharp eye on events. On Jan. 26, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group arrived in the Indian Ocean, putting it closer to assist in any possible U.S. operations targeting Iran.

Should there be a power vacuum, Pahlavi is “the only alternative,” said Salman Sima, a former political prisoner who fled Iran to Canada to escape persecution for his pro-democracy activities. “It is really obvious,” he added, given that it is, “these days, the only name you can hear from inside Iran.”

Sima believes the crown prince is a “unifying figure” who has found support among progressives and conservatives. “He doesn’t take a side, he doesn’t say ‘I’m going to be the shah,’ or ‘I’m going to be the president,’ or ‘I’m going to be the prime minister.’ All he said was a free election that must be determined by the people of Iran.”

In that sphere, Pahlavi told the Washington Examiner in 2025 that he had “taken the lead” to be available and to “lead this transition at the behest of my compatriots.”

Pahlavi insisted he was “not running for any office or position” but answering a call to “intervene because [Iranians] think that I’m probably the best person playing that role for them right now. I’m not saying I’m the only one, and I’d like to work with everybody.”

In July 2025, Pahlavi led a public white paper that he referred to as a “road map to recovery,” officially called the Emergency Phase Booklet, that included consultations from a wide array of experts in their fields. A starter point, he reckons, is for Iranians “to be fully involved in the progress of our nation, as opposed to a very corrupt mafia that has been ruling our country all these years.”

Pahlavi was quick to add that outside powers can lend support in a limited way, with Iranians taking ownership of their future. “I don’t think that it ever comes to any nation or any country thinking that their salvation depends on others. … You only can count on yourselves and nothing else, but life becomes easier when you’re not alone, that you have more help,” he said.

“We’re not going to count on America or Canada or France or Germany or any other country for that matter,” Pahlavi added. “We’re going to do what we have to do, but I hope that we can impress upon friends in the free world that understand how critical it is for people not to feel alone in a fight — a fight that is for the good, for being on the right side of history.”

Amir Hamidi, an internationally recognized expert in global terrorism, cybersecurity, and law enforcement, said bluntly, “This isn’t a personality contest. In a national liberation moment, the real question is who can unify people, lower the temperature between factions, and keep the transition focused on democracy and the rule of law.” His choice in that regard is Pahlavi, “because he has been consistent on the essentials: a secular state, equal citizenship, rejection of revenge politics, and a future decided only by the Iranian people through free elections.”

The former Justice Department special agent, who also served as country attaché in the United Arab Emirates, added that Pahlavi has “recognition across generations” and “across the political spectrum inside and outside Iran.”

The Iranian expat added that he supports “any figure who places Iran’s sovereignty in the hands of its people, not in the hands of armed factions, foreign powers, or one-party ideologues — and Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has repeatedly said exactly that.”

There is a nuance of leadership that Hamidi hopes for: “I believe his strongest and most constructive role is as a transitional, nonpartisan unifying facilitator, not as a self-appointed ruler and not as someone who takes power, but as someone who helps hold the country together while Iranians build legitimacy through the ballot box.”

For Hamidi, Pahlavi “frames himself as a bridge to elections, not an endpoint.”

“In a true democracy, we shouldn’t be hunting for a savior,” Hamidi insisted. “Iran needs institutions, not a cult of personality. The permanent leader must be chosen by free elections, and I’m confident there are many capable Iranians inside and outside the country who could govern democratically once the space is open.”

No consensus leader to head a diverse society

And while the crown prince commands noticeable support among Iranians seeking an alternative to the Islamic Republic’s clerical rule, others still look elsewhere for the face of a post-theocratic Iran.

“I think what it will take is a responsible and coordinated and pluralistic opposition coalition to come together, and we don’t have that at the moment,” said Kaveh Shahrooz, an Iranian Canadian lawyer and human rights activist, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

“We have one person who seems to have very vocal support, and I won’t say a small amount,” Shahrooz added. “It’s hard to determine exactly how much, but it’s not insignificant. But a lot of people have not been included in the coalition, that would need to be included in this coalition, to actually be able to really be effective.”

The Kurds, who are some 10% of the population, are “deeply insulted,” as Shahrooz believes their “demand for equality” has been ignored. “They don’t think they will be treated particularly well if Reza Pahlavi succeeds,” he said.

In terms of the one-fifth comprising the Azerbaijani minority, Shahrooz said that “the vision of [Pahlavi’s] supporters seem to put forth a very ultra-Persian nationalist” endgame. “In my own network of people, I know plenty of Azeris who are deeply troubled by this.”

Shahrooz, who has focused much of his work on documenting and challenging the Islamic Republic’s abuses, said Pahlavi’s “is not a pluralistic movement that’s being built,” adding that Pahlavi “has to legitimately be willing to engage with people that are opposed to him.”

That includes representation from victims of human rights abuses in Iran, “a constituency of their own,” as well as women whose rights were violated, “because women have been uniquely targeted by this regime.”

Shahrooz played a leading role in the campaign that persuaded Canada’s Parliament to recognize the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran as a crime against humanity. As a co-founder of the Iran Justice Collective, he advocates internationally for Iranian political prisoners and a democratic, human-rights-respecting future for Iran.

INDICATIONS THAT TRUMP IS ABOUT TO BOMB IRAN

“So, the worry is that his vision of monarchy is not one similar to Canada, where it’s mostly a ceremonial role above the political fray,” Shahrooz said.

“I worry that he wants a monarchy not entirely unlike his father’s, which was pretty close to an absolute monarchy. I think that’s what some people are afraid of, is that it will be kind of a modern carbon copy, but a little bit sanitized.”

Dave Gordon (@davegordonwrite) is a Toronto-based freelance journalist and has written for dozens of publications in Canada, the United States, and globally.