“This campaign started as a lifetime mission to liberate Iran, 46 years ago. And it has never been about me, it’s been about the Iranian people and their right to self-determination,” Pahlavi said.
***
He stressed that no foreign government should determine who governs Iran, saying the choice belongs solely to the Iranian people.
“It is not for a foreign government to decide who or what should be the alternative for Iran. That’s up to the Iranian people. I’ve never asked for any kind of endorsement from any leader or government,” he said.
At the same time, Pahlavi argued that Iranians would need outside assistance to confront the current authorities, saying protesters could not be expected to safely challenge the government without protection or measures to weaken the state’s security apparatus.
“We cannot expect people to be able to safely return to the streets to take on the final battle without some degree of either protection or means to neutralize forces that are hostile to them,” he said.
Pahlavi described Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian regime targets as a “necessary step” that weakened the government’s repressive capabilities and helped create conditions for the Iranian people to challenge the authorities.
“When you have the mechanism of repression of the regime that were weakened as a result of those strikes, without which would be very difficult for them to confront this regime. Those are added help. Those are the kind of outside interventions that may be required,” he said.
