Amid one of the most tense weeks in the recent history of the Middle East, the king of the Persians in exile, Shah Reza Pahlavi, and a central figure of the opposition in exile, issued a forceful message against the Islamic regime: "The Islamic Republic has come to an end."
In a statement addressed "to all his compatriots," Pahlavi stated that Ali Khamenei's regime is undergoing a process of irreversible collapse. "Khamenei, like a frightened rat, has gone into hiding and has lost control of the situation," he said.
Pahlavi's statement came in the context of Israeli attacks on Iran's strategic facilities, including military bases and nuclear sites. In his message, he lamented the consequences this war has brought for the civilian population, but he was categorical in pointing out that "the end of the Islamic Republic is the end of its 46-year war against the Iranian nation."
According to the opposition leader, the regime's repressive apparatus "is crumbling," and only a national uprising remains to put an end to what he called "a nightmare." He called for action throughout Iranian territory, from northern cities such as Tabriz and Mashhad to the south such as Bandar Abbas and Shiraz, in a call for national unity in the face of the collapse of the Islamic terrorist regime.
