Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who served as the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, urged people to look at the country during and after his leadership when he was asked about how Iranians will judge him 50 years later during an interview.

In a series of conversations with POLITICO, Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah, shared his blueprint for replacing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime with a democracy.

Reza Pahlavi, living in exile in the United States, has long marketed himself as a future leader of Iran. His father’s repressive legacy casts a long shadow.

US President Donald Trump said that the Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi “seems very nice” but expressed uncertainty over his prospects of leading the West Asian nation.

In our interview Mr Pahlavi emphasises that Iran’s fate is in the hands of Iranians: “Iran’s destiny is not sealed by what any other country does... Our fighting will not stop.” From afar, he sounds confident that this is a revolution. But what his role will be remains unclear. ■

Reza Pahlavi, who as a boy was groomed to be the next shah of imperial Iran but has spent nearly five decades in exile, has emerged as a rallying figure in the protests shaking the Islamic republic.Pahlavi has long called for a secular Iran that offers greater social freedoms,

Nostalgia for the shah’s authoritarian monarchy has grown in the shadow of an opposition without clear leaders, but it offers no alternative and enjoys no real support in Iran, according to experts

In an interview with CBS News' Tony Dokoupil, President Donald Trump vowed he'd take "very strong action" against the Iranian regime if it begins to hang protesters.