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Reza Pahlavi, once the crown prince of Iran, says protesters there have been emboldened by President Trump suggesting that he could take military action.
Demonstrators in Austria displayed images of Reza Pahlavi during a rally on Sunday in support of nationwide protests in Iran.Credit...Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Jan. 11, 2026, 5:39 p.m. ET
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s deposed shah and a figure of Iran’s opposition in exile, said he supported U.S. intervention to support a mass protest movement against Iran’s theocratic rulers and issued a direct plea to President Trump to get involved.
Mass protesters have been emboldened by Mr. Trump’s warnings that he could strike the Iranian government if peaceful p…
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Reza Pahlavi, once the crown prince of Iran, says protesters there have been emboldened by President Trump suggesting that he could take military action.
Demonstrators in Austria displayed images of Reza Pahlavi during a rally on Sunday in support of nationwide protests in Iran.Credit...Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Jan. 11, 2026, 5:39 p.m. ET
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s deposed shah and a figure of Iran’s opposition in exile, said he supported U.S. intervention to support a mass protest movement against Iran’s theocratic rulers and issued a direct plea to President Trump to get involved.
Mass protesters have been emboldened by Mr. Trump’s warnings that he could strike the Iranian government if peaceful protesters were killed, Mr. Pahlavi said in an interview on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures.” Several Iranian rights groups on Sunday said the death toll, after two weeks of protests, had reached the hundreds.
Addressing Mr. Trump directly, Mr. Pahlavi said: “They know that you’re not going to throw them under the bus, as has happened before. This is why they are empowered — by the hope that you have their back.”
Born in Tehran in 1960 and once Iran’s crown prince, Mr. Pahlavi has lived in exile since the 1979 revolution that ousted his father, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and ushered in the rule of the Islamic Republic, which is currently headed by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Asked directly during the interview by Maria Bartiromo whether he wanted U.S. forces to “take out Khamenei,” Mr. Pahlavi said “the people of Iran have responded and reacted positively to a promise of intervention.”
He added, “We need to cut the snake’s head off for good so it can no longer be a threat to Iranian interests, to American interests, to regional interests. And the only solution is to make sure this regime goes down for good and the Iranian people can liberate themselves.”
Mr. Pahlavi, 65, has long been a divisive figure among Iran’s opposition, many of whom disdained the idea of restoring a monarchy that Iranians ousted because of its repressive rule. But he appears to have gained a base of support inside Iran in recent years, according to some analysts.
A plunge in the value of Iran’s currency on Dec. 28 incited the current protests, which quickly grew into broader calls for the ouster of Mr. Khamenei. Many protesters have also begun voicing support for the Pahlavis, with chants of “long live the shah.”
On Thursday, Mr. Pahlavi and members of several activist groups issued calls for mass protests, helping accelerate the movement. Huge crowds have taken to the streets of large metropolises and marginalized rural provinces alike.
Since the U.S. operation to capture Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, Mr. Trump has indicated several times that he was considering striking Iran’s leadership. Several U.S. officials told The New York Times on Saturday that the president had been briefed on options for military strikes.
Whether Iranians will be further emboldened by Mr. Pahlavi’s calls for U.S. intervention remains to be seen. When Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran over the summer, briefly joined by U.S. warplanes, many Iranians expressed disdain for foreign intervention and did not turn against the government.
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