Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi described the reported killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as a turning point, thanked US President Donald Trump for ordering strikes, and outlined a transition roadmap aimed at establishing a democratic Iran.
Published Date – 2 March 2026, 09:06 AM
Washington: Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has described the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as “the game changer we’ve been waiting for”, declaring that the moment marks “the beginning of the very end of the regime”.
In a Washington Post opinion piece and a televised interview on Fox News, Pahlavi publicly thanked US President Donald Trump for ordering strikes that he said have shifted the balance of power inside Iran.
“Mr. President: Thank you,” Pahlavi wrote. “Those words gave the Iranian people strength, and I am certain they will meet this moment.”
In the Fox News interview, he said: “There’s no question that this is the game changer we’ve been waiting for.”
He added that “the jubilation of Iranians at home and abroad shows how much people were hoping for this moment,” and said he joined “millions of Iranians thanking President Trump from taking this into action and delivering on his promise.”
Pahlavi argued that the Islamic Republic had for decades operated as “an expansionist revolutionary enterprise, subverting neighbors’ sovereignty, fueling conflicts around the world, and pursuing nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to deliver them.”
He cited what he described as the regime’s record against Americans, writing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is responsible for the deaths of a thousand or more Americans, including at least 603 U.S. service members through Iranian-supplied roadside bombs.”
In his interview, Pahlavi said he was “leading this transition” and had “the support of millions of Iranian people.” He outlined plans for what he called “a very strong, stable transition” aimed at avoiding chaos.
He pointed to a detailed roadmap known as the “Iran Prosperity Project”, describing “the first hundred days critically important” period to stabilise the country. In his opinion piece, he said the transition plan was designed to ensure “no dissolution of institutions, no power vacuum, no chaos.”
“Our path forward will be transparent: a new constitution drafted and ratified by referendum, followed by free elections under international oversight,” he wrote.
In the television interview, he estimated that from the start of the transition to a final referendum would “not be longer than a couple of years at the most.”
Pahlavi also framed a future democratic Iran as a strategic and economic partner for Washington. “We, as Iranians, look at America as our best partner in reconstructing ourselves,” he said.
He suggested that reopening Iran’s market could generate “probably over a trillion dollars worth of impact and revenue to the American economy just by Iran’s market.”
In his closing lines in the Washington Post, Pahlavi wrote: “When the Iranian people succeed in reclaiming their freedom in the days ahead, President Trump will be remembered as a leader who stood with them when it mattered most.”
