Iran’s exiled Crown prince Reza Pahlavi revealed in a recent interview that his father, Mohammad-Reza, planned to pass the throne to him just before the monarchy fell in the 1979 revolution.
In a three-hour interview with entrepreneur and best-selling author Patrick Bet-David, Pahlavi shared that his father, the last shah of Iran, wanted him to succeed to the throne after learning about his cancer. However, this plan was overshadowed by the emergence of a leftist-religious revolution that changed the course of Iran’s history.
Despite campaigning for a secular and democratic Iran rather than a restoration of the monarchy, the former crown prince has a large fan base in Iran and abroad. He became a leading opposition figure during the Women, Life, Freedom protests in September 2022, but has critics among other dissident activists.
Despite at least four decades of Islamic Republic propaganda, Iran’s last dynasty is still revered among Iranians, with Reza Pahlavi enjoying support from various age groups and demographics. Asked about running for a position in Iran after the collapse of the Islamic Republic regime, Pahlavi emphasized that the Iranian people are the ones who should decide on the future form of the government.
He also argued for Iran’s potential as a democracy-seeking country and its role as a flagbearer of peace after the fall of the Islamic Republic. In addition, Pahlavi explained how the challenges of overthrowing clerical rule parallel historic events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the interview, Pahlavi defended some policies of his father and spoke about the role of the US government in the revolution. He also addressed why Iranians revolted against his father and the current state of Iran compared to the aspirations of its former monarchs.