Iran’s exiled prince calls for prompt protests amid killings: ‘This is a war’
Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi has publicly urged all able Iranians to return to the streets and intensify protests against the Islamic Republic, calling the confrontation “a war.” Speaking in an NBC News interview after months of unrest that began Dec. 28 over dire economic conditions, Pahlavi framed the demonstrations as the biggest challenge to Tehran since the 1979 revolution and defended calls for mass action despite heavy government repression – estimates of fatalities range from several hundred to thousands.
Pressed by NBC’s Norah O’Donnell about whether he was risking citizens’ lives, he replied that war has casualties but argued that action and outside support are needed to minimize deaths and end the regime’s brutality. Pahlavi said he had been thrust into a leadership role by the people,courted U.S. backing (particularly from Donald Trump), and insisted that intervention would be a strategic “game changer.” he claimed a prepared transition plan exists – including lawyers, jurists, economic experts and anticipated defections from military and bureaucratic ranks – and reaffirmed his willingness to die for Iran’s liberation, citing an anecdote of a wounded protester who vowed to return to the streets.
Iran’s crown prince calls for renewed nationwide protests despite killings: ‘This is a war’
Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi called for all able Iranian citizens to take to the streets to protest the Islamic government despite thousands of casualties, arguing that they were embroiled in a “war.”
The current round of bloody protests, beginning on Dec. 28 over dire economic conditions, has quickly escalated to the greatest threat to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The government has responded with relentless force, killing anywhere from 500 to 6,000 protesters, according to some estimates. The protests are also unique for often invoking Pahlavi as the alternative to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a role the crown prince has embraced. He was interviewed on NBC News on Monday, where he urged Iranian citizens to intensify their efforts and beg the United States to intervene.
NBC News host Norah O’Donnell pressed Pahlavi on whether it was “responsible to be sending citizens in Iran to their deaths” through these calls and whether he bore some responsibility for their deaths.
“This is a war, and war has casualties,” Pahlavi responded.
“In fact, in order to preserve and protect and minimize the death toll, minimize innocent victims, yet again, being killed by this regime, action is needed. The regime is going to try and brutalize its citizenry as it has always,” he said.
The exiled crown prince then argued that he didn’t choose his position as the de facto leader of the opposition, but rather it was thrust upon him.
“I didn’t ask the people to come to the streets to fight against the regime because I wanted to,” Pahlavi said. “They asked me to step in to help them and to be their voice in the outside world, to do everything that we can so we make this uprising successful this time. And I think we have some serious leaders that understand.”
He also continued his strategy of courting Trump with praise to the detriment of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“They know he’s no Barack Obama or Joe Biden, and that’s why they do have a higher expectation,” Pahlavi said of the protesters.
An intervention on the side of the protesters would be the decisive factor, he argued, and such an intervention would be in the strategic interest of the U.S.
“The game changer for the whole region is Iran. And Iranians are fighting this fight not just to liberate themselves,” Pahlavi said. “They know that as a result of Iran’s liberation, the whole world will breathe easier, that the stability that the whole world is looking for will finally be achieved, because unlike this regime that has always hated America and its allies, the Iranian people are supportive and want to be a friend of America and the rest of the world.”
Preempting fears of a chaotic regime change failure, such as those which occurred in Iraq, Libya, or Syria, Pahlavi argued that this situation would be different, as an alternative has already been fully planned and laid out. This includes a transition team of “lawyers, jurists, economic experts,” and other important experts, and defections from “members in the military, paramilitary forces, and the civil bureaucracy that will be able to be part of the solution in the future.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Pahlavi reaffirmed his willingness to die for the Iranian people, a feeling he said hadn’t faded since he went into exile after his father’s ousting in 1979. He pointed to his having volunteered to fly as a pilot in the Iranian Air Force during the Iran-Iraq War, though the Islamic government rejected him.
“I was prepared to die then; I’m prepared to die now,” Pahlavi said. “There’s no greater cause for the liberty and what is my life when I think you have millions of young Iranians who today call my name.”
IRAN ‘PREPARED FOR WAR’ BUT HOPING FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH US
He then relayed a personal anecdote of a monarchist protester who was wounded during the protests but found encouragement to go back because of him.
“This young girl, who a doctor in Tehran was operating on because she was shot in the face with bullets that had broken her jaw. The doctor said, ‘Where are you going?’ She said, ‘I’m going back to the street. I’m going back and I’m going to the streets … and I wait until Reza, my leader, comes back and saves us,’” Pahlavi said.
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