Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi at the Council on Foreign Relations: The main cause of Iran’s misery is the Islamic Republic regime, not external factors.

On Saturday, October 3, 2025 (11 Mehr 1404 in the Iranian calendar), Prince Reza Pahlavi attended the Council on Foreign Relations think tank and, in his remarks, pointed to the severe damage caused by the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities to national interests, stating:

“The regime’s nuclear ambitions have cost the country more than one trillion dollars.”

In his speech, Prince Reza Pahlavi elaborated on his vision for a secular and democratic Iran, emphasizing the necessity of regime change and the importance of civil disobedience. He described the current Iranian regime as one of the most sinister governments in contemporary history, combining the totalitarianism of fascism with racism, and for this reason strongly condemned the appeasement policies of Western countries, calling for a shift in approach to genuinely support the Iranian people.

During the Q&A session, the question from Barbara Slavin of the Stimson Center and Prince Reza Pahlavi’s response received widespread attention on social media. In response to her question regarding “maximum pressure,” sanctions, and the situation of the people, he stated, among other things:

“What has delayed our freedom and liberation are the misguided policies of your governments, because the primary culprits are Khamenei and his regime, and you have done nothing serious to help us free ourselves from them—not out of concern for us, but out of calculation for your own interests! Has there been any achievement that can, for example, be justified from a ‘realpolitik’ perspective?”

“What do I want from the world? Solidarity! The same solidarity that opponents of the Soviet Union expected from the free West, the same solidarity that the people of South Africa demanded to end apartheid, the same solidarity that helped Lech Wałęsa and his colleagues overcome oppression [in Poland]; we want that solidarity for the Iranian people. But regarding Iran, we have always seen an approach of appeasement and constant negotiations; the regime merely buys time and nothing is achieved. Until this mindset is revised, the Iranian people will remain hungry—not because of sanctions, but because the regime can use its revenues to feed its machinery of repression and proxy operations.”