'The Islamic Republic will fall', says exiled crown prince
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's last shah (king), has pledged to return and lead his country into democracy. We speak to one of his supporters.
Also on the programme: Ugandan opposition leader and presidential candidate Bobi Wine has been forcibly removed from his house and taken to an unknown location in an army helicopter, according to his party; and there is growing excitement in Morocco, as the hosts approach the final of the football Africa Cup of Nations.
(Photo: Reza Pahlavi calls for regime change in Iran at the National Press Club in Washington. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London. I'm Paul Henley. |
| 0:16.5 | Coming up in about 15 minutes, we'll be going to Uganda, where a day after presidential elections, |
| 0:22.4 | the party of the main opposition candidate, Bobby Wine, says he's been forcibly removed from his home |
| 0:27.7 | and taken by helicopter to an unknown location. Earlier today, he said he'd been placed under house arrest by the army. |
| 0:35.3 | But first, the son of the former king of Iran has promised to return to his |
| 0:40.0 | home country in response, he says, to popular demand. Speaking in Washington, D.C., Reza Pahlavi predicted |
| 0:47.3 | the imminent fall of the Islamic Republic in the face of mass protest. Mr. Pahlavi has lived in exile |
| 0:53.2 | in the U.S. since the revolution of Iran in 1979, |
| 0:57.3 | which deposed his father the Shah, who was staunchly pro-Western. Today he called for international |
| 1:03.0 | intervention and claimed without firm evidence that large sections of the military and the Iranian |
| 1:08.5 | establishment were ready to swear allegiance to him. |
| 1:12.4 | Today, as my competitors call on me for leadership, I reaffirm my lifelong pledge by stepping |
| 1:19.8 | in to lead the movement that will take back our country from the anti-Iranian hostile force |
| 1:26.8 | that occupies it and kills its children. |
| 1:30.1 | I will return to Iran. |
| 1:32.7 | Reza Pahlavi finished with an appeal. |
| 1:35.8 | There are moments in history where the moral imperative for action is so strong that the |
| 1:41.6 | weight of inaction becomes unbearable. |
| 1:45.8 | This is one of those moments. |
| 1:53.8 | The people of Iran have reason to reclaim their country. History will honor those who stand with them. Cameron Cancerina is a vice president of the National Union for Democracy in Iran, |
| 2:00.3 | which is a U.S.-based organization |
... |
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