Benham Ben Tabelu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, said Reza Pahlavi, the son of the deposed Shah of Iran, may be a strong contender to be the new leader of Iran if regime change is successful. 

Tabelu said Pahlavi has support among Iran’s youth, an ability to draw crowds and has drawn a sharp contrast between himself and the existing regime. 

“As the debate has moved away from what can civil society do to what can mass protests do to what kind of foreign potential support can these mass protests receive, he has become increasingly popular,” Tabelu said, referencing when Pahlavi called for mass turnout on Valentine’s Day and protests across the country drew millions.

However, it may not be as simple, warned Douglas Murray, a British author and political commentator.

“I think that this is a very tricky corner. There are many people in Iran and in the diaspora who do not simply want a return of the Pahlavis,” Murray said. Still, he said it’s “important to take seriously” Pahlavi’s proposal “to be an interim leader who could cohere the various factions inside the country and out.” 

“That’s why I do think Pahlavi’s most important role is if he could act as that convening figure. It’s about the best thing I’ve seen on the table this year,” Murray said. 

Tabelu said leaders cannot make “the perfect the enemy of the good,” and said that Pahlavi’s installation is, in his view, “the best short-to-medium-term vehicle to get to a post-Islamic Republic in Iran.” 

Both Murray and Tabelu agreed that Pahlavi could be a bridge to elections in Iran.

“From there, the Iranian people decide,” Tabelu said. “From there, it is all about the Iranian people deciding this 100+ year struggle for representative government is not going to be turned off the moment someone comes in who reminds them of the past.”