Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi told Newsmax on Thursday that he hopes President-elect Donald Trump not only uses maximum pressure against the Islamic regime in Tehran but also has a policy that will support that country's oppressed people.
Pahlavi told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that history has shown Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, has only backed down from pressure campaigns like the one in Trump's first administration and is emboldened by weakness and appeasement shown by President Joe Biden and others.
"One of the aspects that I think everybody should realize [since the Islamic regime took power in 1979] is that every time the regime was under pressure or dealt with from a position of strength, it backed away and adjusted tactically to that reality," Pahlavi said in a segment previously recorded earlier this month. "Every time, on the other hand, there was some lacking, or if you will, less pressure or even appeasement, it got emboldened and strengthened. By that, I would like to contrast the first term that President Trump had, and in fact, he was the most strong in terms of foreign policy as it came to implementing maximum pressure on the regime.
"A continuation of that maximum pressure is certainly what is called for. But I would add another component to it, which is parallel to maximum pressure, there ought to be also a policy of maximum support for the people because, ultimately, if change is to happen, it will have to be at the hands of the Iranian people. But they are facing an extremely brutal regime and they cannot do it completely defenseless and without that help. And I hope that's something that will be built into his foreign policy."
Pahlavi said there are ways countries such as the United States and Israel can support the Iranian people should maximum pressure in Trump's next term lead to an uprising.
"Of course, because when we saw ultimate changes occur in countries that were faced with extremely repressive or totalitarian regimes, it was as a result of the citizens of those countries getting emboldened and heartened and strengthened in terms of empowering them to combat the governments that they were facing," Pahlavi said. "We saw the example of it in Poland with Lech Walesa. We saw the case of South Africa and Nelson Mandela.
"And as a result, every time people are empowered, they become the alternative beyond the status quo because one of the problems we have had in four decades is that there was a flaw in the overall foreign policy of Western governments dealing with this regime because it was all based on an expectation of behavior change."
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