Exclusive | Irans exiled crown prince reveals Biden betrayal and why Trumps pressure is best chance of regime change
Iran’s exiled would-be leader has slammed former President Joe Biden’s reversal of President Trump’s sanctions on the regime in Tehran and called on the US to step up its pressure on the Islamist leadership.In an exclusive sit-down with The Post, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi — the eldest son of the former Shah of Iran, the last leader before the Islamic Revolution in 1979 saw him swept from power — said the Iranian people were “friends” of Americans, despite their regime’s funding of terror in the Middle East and further afield.Pahlavi, 64, who fled Iran in his teens, insisted the current Islamic Republic — which he branded a “warmongering regime that has been the basic root cause of regional instability and exporting radicalism and terrorism” — is weaker today than at any point in its almost five decades in power.“The Iranian people are trying to send this clear message to the outside world that if you want a true partner in peace, it is us who represent the alternative, not this regime which has taken our country hostage in the first place 46 years ago and continues to do that,” Pahlavi said.Pahlavi’s late father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was forced from power by nationwide protests after public anger grew against his own repressive monarchy and extravagant lifestyle.But his son, who was subsequently educated in the States, accused the Islamists who have held the reins of power in Tehran since his father’s overthrow of holding back his country.“Iran, had it not been for this revolution, would have been at least equivalent of a South Korea in the Middle East,” he said.“Instead, we have become North Korea.”He is now calling for Trump to put the “maximum pressure” on the regime, possibly through crackdowns on its nuclear program or exporting of terrorism, and reverse the appeasement of Biden, who undermined progress made during Trump’s first term.“This regime, in its DNA, is simply incompatible with the free world as we...