 "Can Reza Pahlavi run Iran if Ayatollah falls? Trump says ‘don’t know’ if that’s possible")
Amid the growing turbulence in Iran, US President Donald Trump said that the Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within the West Asian nation and eventually take over the country.
The remarks from Trump came during his interview with Reuters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. During the conversation, Trump said that there is a chance Iran’s clerical government could collapse, but he remains uncertain about whether the Iranian prince can make a political comeback in the country.
It is pertinent to note that Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, where thousands of people have been reported killed in a crackdown on the unrest against clerical rule. However, he remains reluctant to offer full support to Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, who was ousted from power in 1979.
“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump told Reuters. “And we really aren’t up to that point yet. “I don’t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.”
Trump remains hesitant about Pahlavi
Trump’s comments came a week after he told reporters that he had no plans to meet the Iranian prince. The US-based Pahlavi, 65, has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has become a prominent voice in the protests.
Iran’s opposition is fragmented among rival groups and ideological factions - including the monarchists who back Pahlavi - and appears to have little organised presence inside the Islamic Republic.
In the Reuters interview, Trump said that it is possible that the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests, but that in truth “any regime can fail.” “Whether or not it falls or not, it’s going to be an interesting period of time,” he said.
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