As Israeli military strikes rocked cities across Iran, Reza Pahlavi — the son of the country’s former shah — embarked upon a campaign of his own. Last week, he was invited on to media channels in Europe and the United States to proclaim that ordinary Iranians “welcomed” the bombardment of their country. Against the backdrop of air strikes, car bombs, and the frantic efforts of Tehran’s ten-million-plus residents to heed Donald Trump and Israel’s absurd evacuation orders, the erstwhile crown prince promised that a “free and flourishing” Iran lay just around the corner. Not content with these gilded platitudes, Pahlavi went on to promote what he has described as his one-hundred-day “transitional plan” for Iran in the Jerusalem Post —  a newspaper whose editorial board simultaneously published a call to partition Iran into a patchwork of ethnic statelets. That Pahlavi would choose such a venue, at such a moment, speaks volumes about his purpose and the grander agendas he serves.

Pahlavi is, in every respect, the classic failson. He has never held a job, never led a serious organization, and never managed to cultivate meaningful political support among Iranians inside the country. For years, his appearances have been carefully managed within a small media bubble, usually among doting sycophants and sympathetic right-wing hosts aligned with the neoconservative project of US-led regime change. Interviewed on the Patrick Bet-David podcast, popular in the right-wing YouTube and “alternative media” sphere, Pahlavi admitted that he could only imagine returning to Iran on a part-time basis, as his social life and personal commitments were rooted in the United States, where he’s lived most of his life. It was one of few moments when Pahlavi has let the mask slip, inadvertently revealing just how distant he is from the country for which he claims to speak.

In April 2023, Pahlavi visited Israel. It was a bizarre spectacle. Hosted by the intelligence minister Gila Gamliel of the Likud Party — who would make waves later that year by publicly calling for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza — Pahlavi toured Israel while declaring his admiration for “shared values” between Israelis and Iranians. His tone was one of obsequiousness, not diplomacy. The visit had little to do with real politics and everything to do with ingratiating himself with a state that some in the exiled monarchic opposition see as their last, desperate hope.