The Late Shah's Son Wants a Democratic Revolution in Iran

From exile, Reza Pahlavi supports a movement to retake his homeland. But he says he doesn’t want a throne.

In another era, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of Iran, would be an ideal candidate to lead an Iranian government in exile.

After all, the CIA helped his father retain power in the 1953 coup against the elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Now, as Iran is reeling, why wouldn't the U.S. get the old band back together?

There are two reasons. President Donald Trump himself says his goal is not to change Iran's regime, but to change its behavior. The other more important reason is that Pahlavi himself is not interested in the gig.

"My father was king, and I was the crown prince," he told me in an interview this month. "I have always said to my compatriots: It's not the form that matters, it's the content; I believe Iran must be a secular, parliamentary democracy. The final form has to be decided by the people."

In the 1980s, Pahlavi as a young man had a relationship with the CIA, according to reporting at the time from the Washington Post's Bob Woodward. But even then, the Reagan administration was not trying to change the new regime in Iran; it was trying to negotiate with it. As the Iran-Contra affair showed, Reagan's advisers were selling the mullahs Israeli weapons to free hostages in Lebanon.

Pahlavi himself for more than 20 years has consistently said he is not seeking the throne. Today he takes no money from any foreign governments. Instead, Pahlavi sees himself as someone who can bring attention in the free world to the struggle for freedom in his native land.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-19/iran-s-ex-prince-pahlavi-wants-a-democratic-revolution