Pahlavi says Pezeshkian cannot deliver change in potential Trump talks
Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi cast doubt on whether talks involving President Masoud Pezeshkian and US President Donald Trump could produce meaningful change, telling Fox News that Iran is ultimately controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.
“I don’t expect anything otherwise coming out, especially [from] someone like Pezeshkian, because when the country is de facto run by the IRGC, anybody with the slightest moderate tone would be internally accused of betraying the system,” Pahlavi said.
He said Iranian officials would therefore portray themselves as willing to negotiate while blaming Washington for any failure to reach an agreement.
“They will of course have to play the role of saying, ‘Well, we are trying. It’s the other side that’s been stubborn,’” he said.
Pahlavi argued that negotiations alone could not resolve the broader confrontation.
“The regime itself is the threat. Its nature is the threat,” he said, adding that replacing individual officials or changing the government’s presentation would not address what he called its fundamental character.
“The best guarantee to put an end to the problem is not by this regime changing its face and color,” he said.
Pahlavi said the eventual “end game” should be Iranians bringing about political change themselves, which he argued would ease regional tensions.
His remarks came as Washington and Tehran resumed direct contact on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Trump said Tuesday that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a three-hour meeting with an Iranian delegation and that another meeting was planned for the “very near future.”
Trump described the talks as productive and said he believed the two sides could reach a settlement.