Exiled Iranian prince calls on Germany’s Merz to halt talks with regime in Tehran – POLITICO

BERLIN — Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, called on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to abandon talks with Tehran as European leaders prepared to gather in Cyprus for a crisis summit with the war in Iran high on the agenda.

Pahlavi — whose father’s repressive rule helped ignite the 1979 revolution and who has since emerged as a prominent, though deeply contested, opposition figure — made the remarks during a controversial visit to Berlin on Thursday, where he was scheduled to meet with German lawmakers. The comments follow Merz’s decision, announced earlier this month, to resume diplomatic talks with Iran in an effort to help end the war.

“If your governments continue to focus only on somehow maintaining the status quo, you’re neither helping us liberate ourselves, nor are you truly addressing the concerns that you will have down the line,” Pahlavi told reporters in Berlin. “It should be the prerogative of democratic governments not to be dictated [to] by a bunch of thugs and terrorists.”