US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi \u201cseems very nice\u201d but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive Reuters interview in the Oval Office, Trump said there was a chance Iran\u2019s government could collapse and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the stalemate in negotiations with Russia over the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran. But he was reluctant on Wednesday to lend his full support to Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran, who was ousted from power in 1979.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seems very nice, but I don\u2019t know how he\u2019d play within his own country,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd we really aren\u2019t up to that point yet. I don\u2019t know whether or not his country would accept his leadership, and certainly if they would, that would be fine with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments went further in questioning Pahlavi\u2019s ability to lead Iran, after he said last week that he had no plans to meet with him.<\/p>\n
Opposition Fragmented
\nThe US-based Pahlavi, 65, has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has become a prominent voice in the protests. Iran\u2019s opposition is fragmented among rival groups and ideological factions \u2014 including the monarchists who back Pahlavi \u2014 and appears to have little organised presence inside the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Echoing Trump\u2019s caution, Sanam Vakil, deputy director of Chatham House\u2019s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said Pahlavi had gained prominence among some protesters and had helped mobilise them to some extent. \u201cBut I wouldn\u2019t overstate it. It\u2019s very hard to see how much support he has or how much support any figure has in Iran,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trump said it is possible the government in Tehran could fall due to the protests but that in truth \u201cany regime can fail\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not it falls or not, it\u2019s going to be an interesting period of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump, who is closing out the first year of his second term in office, sat behind his massive Resolute Desk and sipped a Diet Coke during the 30-minute interview. At one point, he held up a thick binder of papers, which he said contained his achievements since being sworn into office on January 20, 2025.<\/p>\n
But he sought to manage expectations for Republicans in November\u2019s congressional midterm elections, noting that the party in power frequently loses seats two years after a presidential election.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you win the presidency, you don\u2019t win the midterms,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to try very hard to win the midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Zelensky\u2019 main impediment to reaching a deal
\nTrump, who has struggled throughout his presidency to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine despite campaign boasts that he could end it in a day, said Zelensky is the main impediment to resolving the four-year-old war.<\/p>\n
Trump has frequently criticised both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky but seemed more downbeat once again on the Ukrainian president.<\/p>\n
Trump said Putin was \u201cready to make a deal.\u201d Asked what the holdup is, Trump said simply: \u201cZelensky.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to get President Zelensky to go along with it,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi \u201cseems very nice\u201d but expressed uncertainty over whether Pahlavi would be able to muster support within Iran to eventually take over. In an exclusive Reuters interview in the Oval Office, Trump said there was a chance Iran\u2019s government could collapse and blamed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15281,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15279\/revisions\/15281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}