GRAPEVINE, Texas — Reza Pahlavi used a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference to warn against any renewed bargain with Tehran’s current rulers and to say he is prepared to help lead a new Iranian government if the Islamic Republic falls, March 28, 2026.
Before a receptive crowd, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah said negotiations with the existing system would only postpone the next crisis. His message was both strategic and political: keep pressure on Tehran, reject partial accommodation and present regime change — not another round of talks — as the only durable endgame.
Reza Pahlavi says Tehran talks would only buy time
The appearance came during CPAC USA 2026 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center, where Iran had already become one of the conference’s defining foreign policy arguments. In a separate Reuters report on the gathering, even some Trump-aligned voices were warning against a deeper U.S. commitment, underscoring why Pahlavi’s hard line drew so much notice.
In a Reuters account of Saturday’s speech, Pahlavi said the regime would only “buy time” and “will never be honest or true partners for peace.” He paired that warning with a promise to press for renewed public action inside Iran rather than a diplomatic reset with the current leadership.
AP’s roundup of CPAC’s top moments said Pahlavi told the gathering he was ready to lead a new Iranian government and would call on citizens to rise up when the “right moment arrives.” The crowd repeatedly cheered him, and he tailored his message to the room with the line, “President Trump is making America great again. I intend to make Iran great again.”
Reza Pahlavi’s case has been building for years
Pahlavi’s CPAC appeal did not come out of nowhere. In February 2023, Reuters reported that he was among exiled dissidents trying to unite a fragmented anti-regime opposition during an earlier cycle of unrest. Then, in January 2026, an AP profile described him as one of the most visible outside voices pushing to influence a fresh wave of protest while also noting the uncertainty over how much support he truly commands inside Iran.
That longer arc helps explain why his remarks in Grapevine landed as more than a wartime sound bite. Pahlavi was not merely cheering a tougher U.S. posture; he was restating a yearslong argument that the Islamic Republic cannot be negotiated into moderation and that any transition must move beyond the people who currently run the state.
Whether that claim broadens his appeal beyond monarchists and diaspora supporters remains unclear. But at CPAC, he found an audience highly receptive to maximum pressure on Tehran and open to his contention that Iran’s next chapter should begin with the collapse of the existing order, not another bargain with it.
