Iran’s Reza Pahlavi pessimistic on nuclear deal but optimistic about future ties with Saudi Arabia

Iran is coming out of its “Islamic Inquisition,” exiled Iran CP Reza Pahlavi says
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CP of Iran Reza Pahlavi comments on recent Javad Zariff leaks
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Updated 30 May 2021
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Iran’s Reza Pahlavi pessimistic on nuclear deal but optimistic about future ties with Saudi Arabia

  • Appearing on Frankly Speaking, Pahlavi warns that current US talks with Tehran are futile as regime only responds to increased pressure
  • Says his political aim is to establish a new secular, democratic system in Iran

DUBAI: Reza Pahlavi, the crown prince of Iran in exile, sees the outcome of the talks on a new nuclear deal as ‘futile as long as the current regime is in place in Tehran.
“Regardless of what is trying to be negotiated here, the net outcome is that it’s futile. The regime is simply using whatever it has as a means of blackmail — forcing the world to deal with it so it can continue maintaining its grip on the geopolitics of our region,” Pahlavi told Arab News.
In a wide-ranging interview kicking off a second season of Frankly Speaking video interviews, Pahlavi also talked about future Iranian relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states once the ayatollah regime has ended, and the desire on the part of most Iranians to return to a normal post-theocratic life.
He insisted that he does not have ambitions to be a new “shah” in Iran, and that it would be up to Iranians to choose what kind of government they want to live under.
“I’m not running for any office. My only mission in life is to get to that finish line, which is the liberation of Iran and, post this regime, to have an opportunity to establish a new secular, democratic system … That day will be the end of my political mission in life,” he said.
Pahlavi, the eldest son of the late shah, was heir apparent to the throne until the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Since then, he has lived mostly in the US as an activist against the regime through the National Council of Iran, of which he is founder and leader.




Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the late shah, sees the outcome of the talks on a new nuclear deal as “futile”. (Screengrab) 

Pahlavi had a hard message for US President Joe Biden amid indirect talks between Washington and Tehran on a new version of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to regulate Iran’s nuclear industry and re-establish economic links to the rest of the world.
“This regime can’t change its behavior because its entire existence depends on its viral state of wanting to export an ideology and dominate the region either directly or via proxies,” said Pahlavi.
“We’ve seen in fact that (US sanctions), for the most part, increased pressure on the regime and forced it to curtail its ability to do whatever it wanted to do. Any relaxation (of pressure) emboldens (the regime) and enables it to further its constant state of creating instability in the region.”
Pahlavi believes that if economic sanctions are lifted, it would only increase the potential for Iran to fund terrorism in the region, where it has orchestrated attacks on Saudi Arabia and other countries through its militias in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
“I think we’ve seen that happen already once during the Obama administration, where a tremendous amount of money was released to the regime and none of it was spent on the people of Iran,” he said.
Pahlavi said he looks forward to a new era of good relations between Iran and its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, after a change of regime in Tehran.
“Look at the way the relationship was before the revolution,” he said.
“When King Faisal of Saudi Arabia passed away, there was a seven-day mourning period in Iran. That’s the extent of what the relationship was,” Pahlavi said.
“The people haven’t changed; the regime has. And as a result of its negative impact in the region, we can certainly anticipate a future where mutual respect and a cordial relationship will be conducive to better trade, better commerce, more opportunities and (improvement of) people’s lives, standard of living, healthcare, regional stability, security coordination and many (other) things.”




In a wide-ranging Frankly Speaking interview, Reza Pahlavi also talked about future Iranian relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Middle East states. (Screengrab)

Pahlavi contrasted the role Iran used to play in the Gulf before the revolution with the situation now, where the country and its people are increasingly isolated.

“There was a time when people in Dubai were dreaming of coming to Tehran to go to our supermarkets and shop in our stores. Today the dream of every Tehrani is to make the furthest move away from Iran,” he said.

Pahlavi insisted there is no deep-seated hatred on the part of Iranians for Arabs or Americans, pointing out that students in Tehran had recently refused to take part in regime-organized demonstrations against foreign countries.

“A nation like Iran, which has a long history of civilization, of culture, of tolerance within itself, has never had an issue of antagonism vis-a-vis any other culture or nation,” he said.

The regime’s theocratic rule has also alienated more Iranians from religion, Pahlavi added. 

“I think religious governance has created a situation where people are steering away from religion. In fact, there’s much more apathy vis-a-vis any religious sentiment as a result of this regime directly trying to force a politicized religion and impose it on the public,” he said.

“Iranians have learned it the hard way, and I think today you see that even those who are pious in Iran don’t want this regime because they see the damage that it causes to people’s faith and to the clerical establishment.”

The Iranian people are emerging from their own “Islamic Inquisition,” he said, referring to the religious extremism of 16th-century Europe.

Pahlavi also attacked the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which controls much of the country’s economic infrastructure in alliance with the regime, as revealed in recent leaked comments by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Pahlavi said: “I was glad that somebody from the regime itself is dismantling this naive expectation by the Western world that moderates will be able to resolve the issues should they be in a position of control. It’s a totalitarian system at the end, depending on the decision of one supreme leader.”

He has advocated a democratic and secular system of government for his country, either with an elected president or a constitutional monarchy.

According to Pahlavi, greater regional cooperation will help the Middle East overcome many of the profound challenges it faces, such as climate change and water shortages.

“Long before we can resolve the political crisis, we should worry about the water crisis that exists in our area. This isn’t only Iran but many other countries also suffering from water crisis problems,” he said.

“If Iran today was a different Iran, you wouldn’t have missiles being shipped to Yemen. We’d have scientists working at resolving the water crisis for our respective countries.”

*Twitter: @frankkanedubai


Lebanon holds local polls in first vote since Israel-Hezbollah war

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Lebanon holds local polls in first vote since Israel-Hezbollah war

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Sunday began the first stage of long-delayed municipal elections, the first vote since a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah and after a new national government was formed.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) for voters in the Mount Lebanon district, a heavily populated area with mixed political and religious affiliations that includes Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold that was heavily damaged by Israeli strikes.
“We have come to exercise our right and have our voices heard,” said Hashem Shamas, 39, a Hezbollah supporter, after voting in south Beirut’s Shiyah neighborhood.
According to the interior ministry, 9,321 candidates including 1,179 women are running in the Mount Lebanon district.
Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.
President Joseph Aoun emphasized the vote’s importance to “give confidence to the people and internationally that Lebanon is rebuilding its institutions and is back on the right track.”
Aoun was elected in January and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam formed a government the following month, ending a more than two-year vacuum as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted following the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The new authorities have promised reforms in order to gain the trust of the international community, as well as unlock billions in bail-out funds amid a five-year economic crisis. They have also vowed a state monopoly on bearing arms.
Hezbollah was left badly weakened in more than a year of hostilities with Israel, with a slew of commanders including the group’s longtime chief, Hassan Nasrallah, killed and its strongholds pummelled in the south and east and in south Beirut.
Israel has continued to strike targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire and still has troops in five areas it considers “strategic.”
In April 2024, the municipal polls were postponed amid the hostilities, which escalated in September into a major Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion before the ceasefire about two months later.
Aoun urged voters not to let sectarian, “partisan or financial factors” impact their vote.
Religious and political affiliations are usually key electoral considerations in multi-confessional Lebanon, where power is shared along sectarian lines.
Municipal ballots however provide a greater margin for local community dynamics to play a role.
Polls are set to close at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Areas of northern Lebanon will vote on May 11, with Beirut and the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley area set to go to the polls on May 18, while voters in the heavily damaged south will cast ballots on May 24.


Lebanese army says Hamas handed over suspect in missile launches toward Israel

Updated 9 min 56 sec ago
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Lebanese army says Hamas handed over suspect in missile launches toward Israel

CAIRO: The Lebanese army said on Sunday that Hamas handed over a suspect involved in launching missiles towards Israel in March, days after Lebanon warned the Palestinian group not to conduct operations that compromise Lebanese security or sovereignty.


UAE to lift Lebanon travel ban on May 7

Updated 04 May 2025
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UAE to lift Lebanon travel ban on May 7

  • UAE will lift a ban for its citizens traveling to Lebanon as of May 7, 2025

DUBAI: The UAE Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that it will lift a ban on its citizens traveling to Lebanon as of May 7, 2025, following a visit by the Lebanese head of state last week, according to WAM News Agency. 

The decision comes after a joint statement issued on Thursday, announcing that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed agreed to implement measures to facilitate travel and improve movement between the two countries.

The UAE banned its citizens from traveling to Lebanon in 2021. Lebanese citizens were not banned from traveling to the UAE. 


Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

Updated 04 May 2025
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Paramilitaries launch first attack on Port Sudan: army

  • The paramilitaries have expanded the scope and frequency of their drone attacks on army-held areas since losing control of areas including most of the capital Khartoum in March
  • UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.

PORT SUDAN: Sudanese paramilitaries on Sunday struck Port Sudan, the army said, in the first attack on the seat of the army-aligned government in the country’s two-year war.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the regular army since April 2023, have increased their use of drones since losing territory including much of the capital Khartoum in March.
Army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a statement that the RSF “targeted Osman Digna Air Base, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in the city of Port Sudan with suicide drones.”
He reported no casualties but “limited damage” in the city, on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
AFP images showed smoke billowing from the area of the airport in Port Sudan, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the nearest known RSF positions on the outskirts of Khartoum.
In the eastern border town of Kassala, some 500 kilometers south of Port Sudan, near Eritrea, witnesses said three drones struck the airport on Sunday for the second day in a row.
An AFP correspondent in Port Sudan said his home, about 20 kilometers from the airport, was shaking as explosions were heard early Sunday.
A passenger told AFP from the airport that “we were on the way to the plane when we were quickly evacuated and taken out of the terminal.”
On social media, users shared videos which AFP was not able to immediately verify showing a large explosion followed by a cloud of smoke rising from the blast site.
Flights to and from Port Sudan, the country’s main port of entry since the start of the war, were suspended until further notice, a government source told AFP.
The rare attacks on the airports in Port Sudan and Kassala, both far from areas that have seen much of the fighting since April 2023, come as the RSF has expanded the scope and frequency of its drone attacks.
The paramilitaries led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been battling the regular army, headed by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in a devastating war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million.
In the early days of the war, the government relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan, which until Sunday’s attack had been spared the violence.
UN agencies have also moved their offices and staff to Port Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge from the war.
The conflict has left Sudan, Africa’s third largest country, effectively divided.
The army controls the center, east and north, while the RSF has conquered nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur and parts of the south.
Lacking the army’s fighter jets, the RSF has relied on drones, including makeshift ones, for air power.


Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

Updated 04 May 2025
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Missile launched from Yemen lands near Israel’s main airport

  • Yemen's Houthis claim missile attack on Israel's main airport
  • Sirens were activated in Tel Aviv and other areas in the country

TEL AVIV: A missile landed inside the perimeter of Israel’s main airport on Sunday, wounding six people, halting flights and gouging a wide crater, in an attack claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The Israeli military said “several attempts were made to intercept” the missile that was launched from Yemen, a rare Houthi attack that penetrated Israel’s air defenses.
A video issued by Israel’s police force showed officers standing on the edge of a deep crater with the control tower visible in the distance behind them. No damage was reported to airport buildings or runways.
The police reported a “missile impact” at Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main international gateway.
An AFP photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest, with the crater less than a kilometer (0.6 miles) away from the closest tarmac.
“You can see the area just behind us: a crater was formed here, several dozen meters (yards) wide and several dozen meters deep,” central Israel’s police chief, Yair Hezroni, said in the video shared by the force.
It was not immediately clear whether the impact was caused by the Yemeni missile or by an interceptor.
The attack was claimed by Yemen’s Houthis, who say they act in support for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza.
“The missile force of the Yemeni armed forces carried out a military operation targeting Ben Gurion airport” with a “hypersonic ballistic missile,” the Houthis said in a statement, referring to their own forces.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it had treated at least six people with light to moderate injuries.
An AFP journalist inside the airport at the time of the attack said he heard a “loud bang” at around 9:35 am (0635 GMT), adding the “reverberation was very strong.”
“Security staff immediately asked hundreds of passengers to take shelter, some in bunkers,” the AFP journalist said.
“Many passengers are now waiting for their flights to take off, and others are trying to find alternative flights.”
An incoming Air India flight was diverted to Abu Dhabi, an airport official told AFP.
A passenger said the attack, which came shortly after air raid sirens sounded across parts of the country, caused panic.
“It is crazy to say but since October 7 we are used to this,” said the passenger, who did not want to be named, referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
“A missile might come at any time and life stops for some time. Today at the airport there was panic and even I was scared, because the blast was big.”

Israel’s airport authority said that “departures and arrivals have resumed” at Ben Gurion, a short while after they had been interrupted due to the missile fire.
The airport “is open and operational,” the aviation authority said in a statement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened a forceful response, saying: “Anyone who hits us, we will hit them seven times stronger.”

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the missile attack on Israel's airport that was claimed by the Houthis.

“Yemen... escalates its attacks on the heart of the illegitimate Zionist entity, surpassing the most advanced defense systems in the world and striking its targets with precision,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.