Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi on Friday said he has been in contact with the Trump administration amid its conflict with Iran, which began with the assassination of its former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah who was ousted from power in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution, has sought to position himself as Iran's next leader. Iran's current leadership selected the late ayatollah's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country's ruler.
"Well, since it was made public, I've been in contact with the administration via the channel of [special envoy] Steve Witkoff," Pahlavi said on "Katie Pavlich Tonight" on NewsNation, The Hill's sister network. "And of course, I'm sure the rest of the messaging has been relayed, at least on the administration side. I've been also talking to members of Congress, both Senate and House, over what it is that we are doing to keep them informed and briefed."
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment about Pahlavi's remarks.
He said that President Trump "will be supportive of whatever the Iranian people will decide" with a new leader. He added that in choosing a new leader, the Iranian people will ensure "a stable transition so the U.S. doesn't have to be in a prolonged way involved in the area."
Pahlavi called Mojtaba Khamenei's ascension to power "the last desperate act of trying to cling on to power," comparing the new supreme leader to his predecessor.
"But I don't think they will succeed," he added. "This regime is extremely weak, on the verge of collapse. And ultimately, we need to make sure that it is totally gone to put an end to all the problems that we're facing and offer an endgame to us Iranians and to the rest of the world."
Pavlich asked him about what a transition for new leadership would look like. Pahlavi answered that "highly skilled technocrats and experts will be at work helping us bring in the mechanism of transition or the leadership team, if you will, a combination of elements that could be from inside and the outside."
Once a parliament and "future governments" are elected, this transition government will dissolve, he added.
Pahlavi is scheduled to appear as a speaker at the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas later this month. He will join a line-up of other prominent speakers that include Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, former UN Ambassador Mark Wallace, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley.