While crowd across Iran have chanted “death to the dictator” [the Supreme Leader] and called for “Reza, Reza Pahlavi,” the crown prince himself has set out how he thinks the regime in Iran should come to an end, and what will then happen to Iranian-Israel relations. More on his discussion of Iran’s future can be found here: “Pahlavi dismisses calls for US-led regime change in Iran, predicts ‘Cyrus Accord’ with Israel,” by James Genn, Jerusalem Post, January 6, 2026:

Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi does not believe that it is necessary for the US to extract Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and put him on trial for his crimes, downplaying chatter that the US military may conduct such an operation, similar to the extraction of Maduro from Caracas, Venezuela.

Pahlavi’s comments came during an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Tunku Varadarajan via Zoom, published on Monday.

“I think that change in Iran is ultimately in the hands of the people of Iran themselves,” he affirmed.

“Many governments have reasons to hold Khamenei accountable, but I think it will be far more appropriate for this to be solely in the hands of the Iranian people, and to have world governments be supportive” of their fight to free themselves, he added.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of any kind of outside intervention, either a military or a special ops kind, because I think the regime is collapsing. The regime is at its weakest.”

The crown prince insists that Iranians themselves must be in charge of their own destiny. It is much better if they themselves topple the regime, instead of having outsiders do it. This would give the new regime its greatest legitimacy. He sees the future Iran as a constitutional monarchy, with the crown prince as the largely symbolic head of state (akin to King Charles in England). Trump has already done enough to support the current protests by warning the regime not to kill protesters, for if it does, then he may attack Iran’s security forces, including the most menacing troops supporting the current regime, the troops of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). But that does not mean a large-sale invasion by American troops is necessary. Strikes from the sky from American fighter jets should be enough to ensure that the army and the IRGC stick to batons rather than bullets. On the ground, those protesters, who are now all over the country, will then find those regime enforcers who will no longer dare to shoot them down largely unintimidating.

Neither Obama nor Biden were prepared to support the protesters in the past. Obama did not lift a finger to help the 2009 Green Movement, which the government quickly suppressed. Biden was even worse in 2022, when there were protests following the killing of Mahsa Amini. He did not punish Iran in order to change its behavior, but instead allowed the Iranian government access to $200 billion in oil revenue that the U.S. could have withheld.

That $200 billion went to pay both for Iran’s nuclear program and for supporting, with money and weapons, its three main proxies — Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. That is why the protesters today shout “No to Gaza, No to Lebanon. My life for Iran.”

Iran is how suffering a historic drought, its worst in modern times. Lakes and rivers have dried up; many dams are as a consequence no longer working, and electricity blackouts are frequent. Some in the current government have suggested that Tehran’s entire population of ten million may, because of the drought, have to be moved to other areas where there is more water. The crown prince knows that Israel is a world leader in the husbanding of water use through drip irrigation, in desalination, and in the production of water out of the ambient air by use of the WaterGen machine produced by Israeli scientists. Israel has a great deal to offer in the management of water resources and Iran has a great need for such expertise. A new and democratic regime in Iran, not the one now in power that rants endlessly about destroying the Little Satan, will be able to take advantage of what Israeli hydrologists have to offer.

The protests across Iran show no signs of diminishing. Most of the chants now are not about economic matters, as in 2019, or about the mistreatment of women following the beating to death of Mahsa Amini by the religious police for failing to adjust her hijab properly in 2022, but about the regime itself: “Death to the dictator!” and “Reza, Reza Pahlavi.”

Reza Pahlavi has no ambition to be a ruler in his father’s stern vein; he has repeatedly said he would serve only if the Iranians want him, and that he would remain, as a head of state, largely above the political fray. So far he has not made a false move. And were Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi to become that head of state, which seems more likely with each passing day of the protests across Iran, he is certain to make sure that Iran and Israel are once again friends and allies, as they were so durably during his father’s reign.

AUTHOR

Hugh Fitzgerald

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.