CBS’s Norah O’Donnell Grills Iran’s Crown Prince About Protests: ‘Is it Responsible to Be Sending Citizens in Iran to Their Deaths?’

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi told CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell in a live special on Monday that he believes President Donald Trump is poised to help liberate the Iranian people from the current hard-line Islamic regime.

For the past 16 days, Iranians have taken to the streets to call for an end to the repressive theocratic rule. In response, the government has cut power and internet, and killed at least 650 protesters, with the death toll continuing to rise.

“I think President Trump is responding to the call that the Iranian people have,” Pahlavi said. “The Iranian people have heard his words, they are naming streets after him in Iran. There’s a difference — they know he’s no Barack Obama or Joe Biden. And that’s why they do have a higher expectation.”

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 resulted in the overthrow of Pahlavi’s father, the Shah of Iran, and the creation of an Islamic Republic, which turned out to be a brutal, oppressive regime.

“The game changer would be for this regime to know they cannot rely anymore on a continued campaign of repression without the world reacting to it,” Pahlavi said.

O’Donnell asked, “As you are urging people to protest and go to the streets, the death toll is rising in Iran. This violent crack-down continues just as it has in past attempted revolutions. Is it responsible to be sending citizens in Iran to their deaths? Do you bear some responsibility?”

“As I said, this is a war, and war has casualties,” Pahlavi said. “We are in a fight for liberation. I didn’t ask the people to come to the streets to fight against the regime because I wanted so. They asked me to step in to help them and to be their voice on the outside world, and to do everything we can so to make this uprising successful this time. And I think we have some serious leaders that understand what is necessary. That understand the ask of the Iranian people and are responding to that.”

Pahlavi said the time for the world to act in support of the protesters is now.

“In order to preserve and protect and minimize the death toll, minimize innocent victims against being killed from this regime, again, action is needed,” Pahlavi said.

Watch the interview above via CBS News.

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