Reza Pahlavi calls on Iranian state workers and security forces to side with protesters, as embassy flag swaps escalate tensions with Britain.
PARIS: The US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah has called on government workers and security forces to join the country’s protest movement.
Reza Pahlavi urged them to choose between siding with the people or being complicit with “the murderers of the people” in a social media post.
His statement followed a rights group’s accusation that Iranian authorities were carrying out a “mass killing” to suppress unrest.
Pahlavi, an emerging opposition figurehead, also called for replacing the flags outside Iranian embassies worldwide.
He said they should fly Iran’s pre-Islamic revolution national flag instead of the “disgraceful banner of the Islamic republic”.
In London, protesters successfully swapped the flag at the Iranian embassy over the weekend.
They hoisted the tri-coloured banner used under the rule of the last shah, which ended with the 1979 revolution.
This ceremonial flag has become an emblem of global rallies supporting Iran’s internal demonstrations.
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador in Tehran over the flag incident.
The summons was reported by the official outlet IRNA.