Ayatollah is planning to FLEE Iran, exiled prince claims as he warns of more bloodshed if regime is allowed to survive

Scottish Sun

23-06-2025

IRAN'S exiled crown prince today warned the bloodthirsty Ayatollah is plotting to flee as his terror-stoking reign is "collapsing".
Reza Pahlavi also urged the West not to "throw Iran's corrupt regime" a lifeline - or face more bloodshed.
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Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, speaks during a press conference
Credit: AP
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A US Air Force B-2 stealth bomber returns after the U.S. attacked key Iranian nuclear sites
Credit: Reuters
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Close-up view of craters after US strikes on Iran's Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant
Credit: AFP
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The Ayatollah is currently in hiding somewhere in Iran
Credit: AFP
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been in hiding since war broke out between Israel and Iran - and is understood to be holed up in a bunker.
But Pahlavi, the son of Iran's final shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, today said the barbaric leader and senior regime generals are plotting to escape the country.
He also urged Western countries not to allow the regime "to survive" - describing it as Iran's "Berlin wall moment".
Speaking in Paris, the prince said: "But like all moments of great change, it comes with danger.
"We stand at a crossroads. One road leads to bloodshed and chaos. The other to a peaceful and democratic transition.
"The difference in these two roads depends on one factor and one factor alone.
"If the West throws the regime a lifeline, there will be more bloodshed and chaos because the regime will not stop or surrender after it has been humiliated."
Pahlavi warned nowhere in the world will be safe as long as the Ayatollah's regime remains in power.
He added: "No country, no people are safe whether its on the streets of Washington, Paris, Jerusalem, Riyadh or Tehran."
Pahlavi today announced he has offered to "help our great nation navigate through this critical hour towards stability" - but insisted he does not seek political power.
It comes as Donald Trump last night hinted at regime change in Iran after unleashing US military might on nuclear sites on Sunday.
The US president said: "If the current Iranian regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be regime change? MIGA!".
Pahlavi, 64, left Iran in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution saw his father toppled from power.
He has spent most of his time living in the US with his wife and three daughters - and is a leading voice in the call for regime change in Iran.
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Reza Pahlavi made an impassioned plea in Paris
Credit: AP
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His supporters gather with banners in London
Credit: Getty
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Supporters wave flags and banners
Credit: Reuters
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President Donald Trump and his national security team meet in the Situation Room of the White House
Credit: White House
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Iranian protesters hold up posters showing the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, and the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini
Credit: AP
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Irans take to the strikes amid their conflict with Israel - and now the the US
Credit: EPA
It comes as Iran has vowed revenge after Trump blitzed critical nuclear sites after a week of trading blows with Israel.
Trump hailed Operation Midnight Hammer as a "bullseye" that caused "monumental damage" to Iran's doomsday plot.
Conflict in the Middle East now sits on a knife edge as it threatens to spiral and draw in other countries.
The bloodthirsty Iranian regime has today deployed a fresh barrage of missiles against Israel as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continues to cower in hiding.
Who was the Shah?
By Annabel Bate, Foreign News Reporter
THE last Shah of Iran was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
He ruled from 1941 to 1979, having succeeded his dad Reza Shah.
Mohammad Reza had a pro-Western foreign policy and encouraged economic development in the nation.
What led to his downfall initially however was 1963 The White Revolution - a series of social, political and economic reforms that Mohammad Reza initiated.
This looked to both modernise and westernise Iran.
But the reforms were perceived as controversial and led to some resistance from various religious and political factions.
On February 11, 1979, Iran's army declared its neutrality, paving the way for the fall of US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza.
He died in exile in Egypt in 1980.
Israel launched a fresh round of missile strikes on Iran's Fordow nuclear site - blowing up access roads to the uranium plant.
Significant damage has likely been caused to the plant and the sensitive machinery it houses by the US' bombing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
Iran claimed to have moved much of the nuclear material away from the site before the strikes.
In bombing access routes, Israel could have made it more difficult to return anything that was removed.
Iran is now desperately trying to recruit its allies and the supreme leader has sent his foreign minister to Moscow.
In a televised meeting, Vlad slammed Trump's airstrikes as "unprovoked aggression" and said he was helping Iran.
The Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi was also set to deliver a letter from the supreme leader, sources said.
It comes as Vlad's man at the UN has warned that America has opened "Pandora's box" and that "no one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring".
And elsewhere, the IDF targeted Iran's "Destruction of Israel" clock in this morning's strikes, according to Defence Minister Israel Katz.
The clock was erected in Palestine Square in Tehran in 2017, and supposedly counts down to the elimination of Israel - one of the regime's official goals - by 2040.
Katz listed the clock amongst various other targets responsible for "maintaining the regime's stability" as momentum towards regime change picks up.
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