Exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi is...

Editor's note: ...urging the international community to take stronger action (including bombing?) against Iran's leadership as nationwide protests continue to escalate and the regime cracks down violently. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Pahlavi described the current uprising as a pivotal moment in Iran's history, claiming that the government has grown increasingly reliant on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to suppress dissent. He said that only coordinated international measures, particularly targeting the IRGC's capabilities, could help protect civilians and weaken the regime's coercive power, adding that Iranians themselves should ultimately decide their country's future. Here is the threat: Islam in global political and individual-rights (human rights don't exist) debates is that, when treated as a source of immutable state law and political authority, it can legitimize theocratic rule that suppresses dissent, restricts individual freedoms, and resists legal reform by placing divine command above human accountability.
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Crown prince preparing to join 'final battle' against regime, Pahlavi tells 'Post' - exclusive

The regime was weaker than ever, the people more united than ever, and so I called for coordinated action on January 8 and 9, and millions took to the streets.

By Alex Winston | January 29, 2026 

Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has watched from afar for weeks as his country has burned and Iranians have been massacred in their thousands. From the beginning of the protests, which erupted nationwide on December 28, the people have been calling his name and that of his family – "Javid Shah" (Long Live the Shah) and "Pahlavi barmigardeh" (Pahlavi will return).

From his exile in the United States, he has emerged as the unified leader of the demonstrations, both because he has a plan and because the people demand him.

"In late December and early January, the Iranian people had already bravely taken to the streets as they have so many times before, braver than ever," he told The Jerusalem Post this week. "They called on me for leadership and for direction. The regime was weaker than ever, the people more united than ever, and so I called for coordinated action on January 8 and 9, and millions took to the streets.

"It was an escalation of our fight for liberty, and the regime escalated its violence," he added, arguing that "now is the time for the international community to help them."

His call for aid from the international community comes amid growing frustration from Iranians that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have yet to take any military action against the Islamic Republic, despite several assurances.

Trump announced that an additional "armada" of US military vessels is sailing towards Iran during a speech given in Iowa on Tuesday evening, which comes after the USS Abraham Lincoln group, including other US warships, destroyers, and fighter aircraft, had reached CENTCOM waters in the Indian Ocean.

Pahlavi insisted that Iran's future must ultimately be decided by Iranians, but said the world has a direct strategic interest in helping them bring the regime down. [Editor's note: With emphasis on Islamic regime.]

Iran's future will be decided by the Iranian people 

"My position has been consistent for over four decades: Iran's future will be decided by the Iranian people themselves," he wrote. "They are the boots on the ground needed to end this regime." [Editor's note: Since when are countries "run by its people?"]

But, he argued, the protests are not only a national struggle.

"They are not just fighting for themselves, they are fighting to free the world from this criminal regime," he said, adding that "not just for humanitarian needs but out of strategic necessity, the world must act to help them."

Since January 8 and 9, Tehran has become increasingly dependent on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) domestic repression infrastructure to survive. The internet and mobile cell signal have been cut or reduced for 20 days, leaving many Iranians struggling to tell the world what is happening. There have been reports of massacres, including beheadings, the indiscriminate shooting of live ammunition into crowds, and buildings set alight with people inside.

"The situation on the ground has indeed changed, both in scale and viciousness of the repression," Pahlavi said of the escalating situation, alleging the regime is "shutting down communications, and relying entirely on the IRGC’s repressive machinery to survive."

The regime has killed at least 43,000 Iranians since protests began, according to the International Center for Human Rights, with estimates of over 330,000 injured and over 30,000 arrested. Many of the injuries have been caused by exploding pellets shot deliberately into protesters’ eyes, leaving many blinded.

Please go to The Jerusalem Post to continue reading.
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Neither Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi nor his son Reza Pahlavi had a religious connection to Zarathustra or practiced Zoroastrianism, but both drew on Iran's pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian-era heritage symbolically to reinforce a secular national identity. The Shah highlighted ancient Persia to legitimize state authority independent of clerical Islam, while Reza Pahlavi references the same legacy to emphasize pluralism, cultural continuity, and the separation of religion and state, using Zarathustra's era as history and symbolism, not theology. Reza Pahlavi respects Islam as a personal and cultural faith for many Iranians but opposes political Islam and clerical rule, arguing that religion should be separated from the state so all citizens can freely practice, or reject, any belief without coercion:

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi regarded Islam as a respected personal and cultural religion but deliberately restricted clerical power, insisting that the Iranian state be governed by secular law and national authority rather than religious rule: