Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi has mounted a forceful and deeply personal attack on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accusing Iran’s clerical establishment of betraying the very faith it claims to defend. Calling on the country’s majority Shia population to rise and “reclaim faith,” he described the 86-year-old leader as the “false prophet of our time,” in one of his sharpest denunciations of the Islamic Republic yet.Positioning his message amid a period of mounting unrest and simmering anger within Iran, Pahlavi addressed the nation in deeply evocative terms, beginning with the words, “my devout Shia compatriots.” He argued that the Islamic Republic had, from its very inception, ruled in the name of religion while delivering hardship and repression. “From the very first day, the Islamic Republic seized power in your name and in the name of your religion, and to this day it has produced nothing but poverty, misery, and crimes against humanity,” he said.He accused Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of misusing religion to justify violence against citizens, writing further on X, “You yourselves witnessed, during the national Lion-and-Sun Revolution—as in the other uprisings of recent years—that the Islamic Republic and Ali Khamenei personally, in the name of religion and with the support of clerics, refrained from no crime: from shooting innocent citizens with live ammunition—including children and school students—to delivering final shots to the wounded in hospitals, and from the torture, murder, and rape of detainees.”He added, “All of this has been and continues to be done in the name of Shia Islam. They have turned mosques into bases of repression, chant ‘Haydar Haydar’ while aiming at their fellow countrymen’s heads, and perform their prayers on blood-soaked prayer rugs.”Pahlavi urged members of the Shia community to oppose the politicisation of Islam under what he described as Khamenei’s “illegitimate regime.” He said, “My message to faithful Shia who oppose the Velayat-e Faqih and political Islam is this: If you care about the faith and wish, in the future Iran, to practice your religious rites peacefully, in a non-political and individual manner, then stand at the forefront of the struggle against this illegitimate regime and its criminal leaders. Reclaim your religion and faith from the false prophet of our time. Do not allow the crimes of the Islamic Republic and the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be written in the name of your religion.”He also expressed solidarity with minority community, Sunnis, and urged unity against the regime. Ending his X post, he wrote, “Today, a large number of the devout are already in the trenches fighting the Islamic Republic. To those who have not yet joined this sacred struggle, I urge you—before it is too late—to stand alongside your Sunni brothers and sisters and the followers of other religions, denominations, and beliefs; join the ocean that is the Iranian nation; and reclaim your faith from the despot Zahhak and his cohort. This will better serve both you personally and the future of Shia Islam and the Islamic faith in Iran.”Iran witnessed large-scale demonstrations in late 2025 and early 2026, with widespread protests against the Khamenei-led regime. Citizens took to the streets across multiple cities, expressing anger over inflation, economic hardship, and political repression. What began as protests over rising prices evolved into one of the largest waves of unrest in recent years, with demonstrators targeting symbols of the Islamic Republic and burning images of the Supreme Leader Khamenei.US President Trump also weighed in during the demonstrations, expressing support for the Iranian people while sharply criticising the Khamenei regime. He has repeatedly called for regime change in Iran, with the exiled Pahlavi family seen by some observers as a potential political alternative in the event of a transition.Trump has also issued stern warnings to Tehran and reinforced the US military presence in the region, deploying fighter jets, naval assets, and additional strategic weapon systems in areas surrounding Iran.
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