BERLIN — Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, called on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to abandon talks with Tehran as European leaders prepared to gather in Cyprus for a crisis summit with the war in Iran high on the agenda. Pahlavi — whose father’s repressive rule helped ignite the 1979 revolution and who has since emerged as a prominent, though deeply contested, opposition figure — made the remarks during a controversial visit to Berlin on Thursday, where he was scheduled to meet with German lawmakers. The comments follow Merz’s decision, announced earlier this month, to resume diplomatic talks with Iran in an effort to help end the war.
“If your governments continue to focus only on somehow maintaining the status quo, you’re neither helping us liberate ourselves, nor are you truly addressing the concerns that you will have down the line,” Pahlavi told reporters in Berlin. “It should be the prerogative of democratic governments not to be dictated [to] by a bunch of thugs and terrorists.” European leaders are gathering in Cyprus Thursday for a high-stakes summit focused largely on the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, now entering its eighth week under a shaky ceasefire. European leaders are split over how to respond to a conflict that has destabilized energy markets and strained relations with the U.S.
Pahlavi, who has presented himself as a leader capable of steering a transitional administration, called on EU leaders to apply more pressure on the regime in Tehran. “There are a lot of things that Europe can do that it hasn’t,” he said. “Nothing has been done by putting more pressure on the regime to stop executions.
Nothing has been done to force them to release political prisoners.” Pahlavi was set to meet German lawmakers, including Armin Laschet, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Bundestag and a member of Merz’s conservatives. Members of the chancellor’s Cabinet, however, have refused to meet the exiled prince. “The German government sees no reason to seek dialogue with him,” said Stefan Kornelius, Merz’s spokesperson, on Wednesday.
“The Iranian regime is currently the point of contact.” Pahlavi’s visit to Berlin has stoked controversy, with politicians across the political spectrum and members of the Iranian diaspora in Germany criticising lawmakers for meeting with him. “The Pahlavi family represents the authoritarian regime that existed before 1979. His father had political opponents persecuted, tortured and murdered,” Berlin’s conservative justice senator, Felor Badenberg, told Tagesspiegel.
“This is deeply rooted in the collective memory of the Iranian people. To this day, Reza Pahlavi has failed to clearly distance himself from it,” added the Iranian-born politician.