Son of ousted Iranian shah warns West against ‘throwing lifeline’ to Iran leadership

PARIS: 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 told AFP on Monday.

“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,” Reza Pahlavi, formerly crown prince and now a key opposition figure, said in an interview in Paris.

He said that the Islamic republic, 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 (the Iranian people), not throwing this regime another lifeline to survive,” he said.

“The end of the regime is near… this is our Berlin Wall moment,” the US-based Pahlavi added.

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Israel has carried out 10 days of air strikes against Iran, seeking to degrade its nuclear and ballistics programmes, but also hitting other targets. The United States joined in with unprecedented attacks of its own, including on the heavily-fortified Fordo nuclear site.

Khamenei’s whereabouts are unclear and Israel has refused to rule out killing him. Khamenei has led the country since the 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

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 that 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… people will see that more tangibly in the coming days and weeks,” he said, declining to comment on the scale of such approaches.