Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi sends message to Trump after supreme leader Khamenei killed

WorldPolitics
2 Mar 2026 • 10:42 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

image is not available

Donald Trump has been praised by exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Speaking to CBS on Sunday (1 March), Pahlavi, the son of the country’s last shah who was overthrown in 1979, thanked the US president “for having the courage to do what is not easy and intervene”.

Mr Pahlavi, who is positioning himself as a transitional leader for Tehran, said that Mr Trump “will go down in history as the most celebrated foreign leader that changed the ballgame and the world as a result”.

On Saturday (28 February) hundreds of missiles struck multiple sites in Iran, including a compound housing Khamenei, who Iranian state media later confirmed had died in the attack.