Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, has appealed to US President Donald Trump seeking his support and action in the country amid fears of a crackdown on the streets by the regime and its forces on the nearly two-week-long protests.
“Last night you saw the millions of brave Iranians in the streets facing down live bullets. Today, they are facing not just bullets but a total communications blackout. No Internet. No landlines,” Pahlavi said in a post on X.
Pahlavi has lived in exile in the US for nearly 50 years. (Photo: Reuters/ File)
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after authorities blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as video showed buildings aflame in anti-government protests raging in cities across the country.
Rights groups have already documented dozens of deaths of protesters in nearly two weeks and, with Iranian state TV showing clashes and fires, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several police officers had been killed overnight.
Ali Khamenei warns protesters
In a televised address, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to back down, accusing demonstrators of acting on behalf of émigré opposition groups and the United States, and a public prosecutor threatened death sentences.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted protesters in a speech aired Friday. (Source: Express Archives)
Protesters are “ruining their own streets … in order to please the president of the United States,” Khamenei said.
“Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead,” the Ayatollah said, referring to Trump’s comment of a US intervention in Iran, if peaceful protests are violently suppressed.
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.
In the past, such communication blackouts have been used to unleash brutal crackdowns on protests.
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Pahlavi expressed apprehensions that the same could be playing out on the streets again.
“Ali Khamenei, fearing the end of his criminal regime at the hands of the people and with the help of your powerful promise to support the protesters, has threatened the people on the streets with a brutal crack down. And he wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes,” he said.
Mr. President, this is an urgent and immediate call for your attention, support, and action. Last night you saw the millions of brave Iranians in the streets facing down live bullets. Today, they are facing not just bullets but a total communications blackout. No Internet. No…
— Reza Pahlavi (@PahlaviReza) January 9, 2026
Pahlavi becomes face of anti-govt protests
Pahlavi was a teenager when, along with his father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and his mother, Farah Diba, he fled Iran in 1979 following the Islamic Revolution.
Iranian protesters demonstrate against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Tehran, October 1978. (AP Photo/ File)
Pahlavi has lived in exile in the US for nearly 50 years, but in recent years, as public anger grows against the Islamic Republic, he has repeatedly expressed his intention to return to the country to lead it.
In recent interviews, Pahlavi has raised the idea of a constitutional monarchy, possibly with an elected rather than a hereditary ruler. But he has also said it is up to Iranians to choose.
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Pahlavi successfully spurred protesters onto the streets Thursday night in a massive escalation of the protests sweeping Iran.
He also issued calls, rebroadcast by Farsi-language satellite news channels and websites abroad, for Iranians to return to the streets on Friday night.
The crown prince urged Trump to intervene in Iran if the government forces resort to a crackdown on the demonstrators.
“I have called the people to the streets to fight for their freedom and to overwhelm the security forces with sheer numbers. Last night they did that. Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime’s thugs at bay. But time is of the essence. The people will be on the streets again in an hour. I am asking you to help,” he said.
