The exiled Iranian prince and son of the last Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, said that Russia and the regime in Tehran jointly pose a threat to the democratic world, and Ukraine and the Iranian people are fighting for the same principles. He said this on May 30 during a speech at the Black Sea Security Forum 2026 in Odessa, which was broadcast on YouTube.
At the beginning of his speech, Pahlavi called Odessa a city that “looks aggression in the eye” and refuses to surrender.
According to him, the Iranian Shahed drones that Russia uses to attack Ukrainian cities were developed by the same regime that persecuted protesters in Tehran and helped suppress protests against the government.
“Shahed sees no difference between a house in Kharkov, a commercial office in Dubai or a square in Tehran,” he said.
Moscow and Tehran are now not just partners, but “co-architects of the chaos” that governs the world order, the prince said. In his opinion, both regimes act according to a similar logic: first they direct repression against their own citizens, and then against neighboring countries and the democratic world.
“Russia also has its own regime – against democracy, against Georgia, and together with the Islamic Republic – against Syria and Ukraine. They do this together, watching how the free world will respond to these challenges in order to calculate the next steps,” Pahlavi noted.
He stressed that sanctions should hit armies, drone factories and structures that ensure aggression, while simultaneously warning against negotiations with authoritarian regimes.
“These negotiations do not lead to peace. Negotiations with tyrants lead to tyranny,” the Iranian prince emphasized.
He cited the example of the USSR, which “postponed rather than resolved confrontation.” The heir to the Iranian monarchy called on the West to support not only Ukraine, but also the democratic opposition in Iran, and also consider the Russian-Iranian threat as a single one.
