United States President, Donald Trump, has said most of the individuals the United States considered as potential future leaders of Iran are dead, as he again cast doubt on whether exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi could run the country.
Speaking during an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump declined to name any alternative figure, saying that most of the people they had in mind are dead.
Pahlavi, 65, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, has claimed he is “uniquely placed” to lead a transitional government and has indicated he would be willing to return to Iran for the first time in 47 years. However, Trump has repeatedly questioned whether the exiled crown prince has sufficient support among Iranians.
Speaking alongside Merz, Trump said that while “some people like him”, the administration has not “been thinking too much about that.” He also said he was unsure “how he’d play within his own country.”
“I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership,” he added. “Certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”
Instead, Trump suggested that someone already within Iran “would be more appropriate,” but did not identify any specific individual.
He said, “Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is dead. And now we have another group.
“They may be dead also, based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty sure we’re not going to know anybody.
“But we have — I mean, Venezuela was so incredible because we did the attack and we kept the government totally intact. And we have Delcy, who’s been very good. We have the whole chain of command.
“And they’ve been — you know, look, the relationship has been great.”
Iran’s last leader, Ali Khamenei, along with a large number of senior officials, was killed in the initial wave of US and Israeli strikes. Trump confirmed that another strike targeting surviving Iranian leaders reportedly took place on Tuesday.
Pahlavi has been living in exile in the United States, primarily in the Washington DC area. He is scheduled to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC, in Texas later in March.
In an interview with CBS on 1 March, he said he believes Iranians trust him because “they cannot associate me in any way or form to the revolution or part of this regime.”
Pahlavi’s father, the last Shah of Iran, was overthrown during the 1979 revolution led largely by Ruhollah Khomeini, predecessor to the recently killed Khamenei.
The revolution united a broad coalition of opposition groups dissatisfied with the Shah’s rule, economic conditions and modernisation policies, which critics said destabilised rural communities and angered traditional clerics.
While Pahlavi said he does not expect an “official endorsement” from any foreign leader, he maintained that “millions of Iranians inside Iran and outside Iran are calling my name.”
In February, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across the United States and Europe following Pahlavi’s call for a “global day of action” in solidarity with demonstrations that had swept Iranian cities in December and January. Tens of thousands were killed in the government’s crackdown, with Trump on Tuesday putting the estimated death toll at 35,000.
Since the conflict began on Saturday, more than 1,700 targets in Iran have been struck, according to US Central Command, the US military command responsible for operations in the Middle East and parts of south and central Asia.
(BBC News)