Security guards pulled the man away and held him. Red paint was already on Reza Pahlavi.
It happened outside Germany’s federal press conference building in Berlin on Thursday, moments after the exiled Iranian crown prince finished briefing reporters. According to video and media reports, a protester splashed him with the paint. Pahlavi was not hurt. He moved away, waved to supporters and got into his car.
Inside, he had been blunt about the ceasefire between the United States and Iran. The agreement, he said, assumed Iran’s government would change its behavior and that negotiators would now be dealing with people who had suddenly become pragmatic. “I don’t see that happening,” he said. “I’m not saying that diplomacy should not be given a chance, but I think diplomacy has been given enough chance.”
He asked Europeans to do more to “support the Iranian people fighting for democracy.” He said Iran’s government had executed 19 political prisoners over the previous two weeks and sentenced 20 others to death. “Will the free world do something, or watch the slaughter in silence?” he asked.
The Washington Post reported that Pahlavi was not invited to meet any government representatives during his Berlin visit.
Pahlavi is 65. His father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was Iran’s last shah, driven out in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the clerical regime to power. Millions of Iranians took to the streets against him. His son has spent nearly 50 years in exile and still presents himself as a player in Iran’s future, though how much backing he has inside the country is unclear. He has publicly supported the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran and has urged President Donald Trump to follow through on promises to help protesters who were killed in demonstrations earlier this year.
