Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi said Saturday he is ready to lead Iran’s transition “as soon as the Islamic Republic falls.”

As the war in Iran entered its third week, Pahlavi — the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — said he has been working in recent months to develop a transition plan should the Iranian regime collapse to ensure the country does not experience a disruption in governance.

Pahlavi said in a social media post that “capable individuals” have been identified both inside and outside Iran to lead what he called a “transitional system.”

“The transitional system, under my leadership, will be ready to assume governance of the country as soon as the Islamic Republic falls and, in the shortest possible time, establish order, security, freedom and the conditions for Iran’s prosperity and flourishing,” he said.

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Pahlavi has lived in exile since the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled Iran’s monarchy and established the Islamic Republic.

He has in recent years sought to position himself as a unifying opposition figure and has said he would help guide a transition of power from theocracy to democracy in Iran.

In a message addressed to his “compatriots,” Pahlavi said his plan for governing the country would fall within the framework of the “Iran Prosperity Project.”

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He said that many compatriots with valuable experience and expertise have declared “their readiness to participate in the rebuilding of the country and to serve the homeland.”

Since joint operations between the U.S. and Israel began, nearly 50 regime figures have been killed, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was elected this week by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the country’s new supreme leader.

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In an appearance last week on Fox News’ “My View” with Lara Trump, Pahlavi said the Iranian people would not accept any outcome moving forward tied to the current regime.

“Only a clean break will ensure that not only we achieve a democratic solution and alternative to this regime, but there will be people who are not in any form or shape directly associated with this regime,” he said.

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Pahlavi said the Iranian people must decide their country’s leadership and that “only the ballot box should determine the outcome and who will be responsible for our country in the future.”

“I think what we will expect any government, including, of course, the current Trump administration to recognize that indeed the best way to help the Iranian people is to allow them to make that choice freely and to support that choice as a Western democracy, as the leading democracy in the world,” he said.

At least four people were killed and 15 more were wounded in a combined Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s Kyiv region overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

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Three of the wounded were in critical condition, of whom two were undergoing surgery, regional administration head Mykola Kalashnyk reported. The attack hit four districts, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions, enterprises and critical infrastructure, Kalashnyk said in a social media post, adding that he had “information about 30 damaged sites”.

Zelenskyy said the main target for the overnight strikes was “the energy infrastructure of the Kyiv region.” He said Russia had launched 430 drones and 68 missiles, adding that air defences had intercepted 402 and 68 of them respectively.

Zelenskyy said rescue and clearing up operations were underway “in the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Mykolaiv regions”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Saturday said the nighttime strikes targeted energy and industrial facilities serving Ukraine’s armed forces, as well as military airfields.

Peace talks stall amid Middle East war

The strikes came days after the US postponed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine scheduled for this week, citing the war in the Middle East.

Russia is already profiting from a surge in global energy prices, and could hope that the US-Israeli war with Iran will detract attention from Ukraine and deplete Western arsenals.

Zelenskyy on Saturday called on Kyiv’s Western partners to pay “one hundred percent attention” to the need to boost the production of air defense missiles.

“Russia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine,” he said in a post on social media.

“We must be fully aware of the real level of the threat and prepare accordingly, namely: in Europe, we need to develop the production of air defence missiles — especially those capable of countering ballistic threats — as well as all other systems necessary to truly protect lives,” he said.

Zelenskyy also expressed concern that the temporary easing of US sanctions on Russian oil would bring Moscow new revenue to finance its war effort.

“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war,” Zelenskyy said. “This certainly does not help peace.”

Kyiv is also awaiting White House approval for a major drone production agreement proposed by Ukraine last year, as countries scramble to modernise their air defences after the Iran war exposed shortcomings.

Ukrainian drones reportedly hit Russian oil refinery and port

Overnight into Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery and port in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, local Russian officials reported.

Krasnodar authorities said three people were hurt in a strike on Port Kavkaz, a port opposite Crimea used to ship liquefied natural gas and grains. A service vessel and pier infrastructure were damaged, they said in a social media post. One person was hospitalized, they added in a separate post later.

Falling drone debris also sparked a fire at the region’s Afipsky oil refinery, local authorities said. They added no one was hurt, and that the strike damaged the refinery, allegedly due to falling drone debris.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences “intercepted and destroyed” 87 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions.

Earlier this week, Russian and Ukrainian officials both claimed frontline progress, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow’s forces back across places on the front line and the Kremlin insisting Russia’s invasion of its neighbor is making progress.

Russia’s full-scale invasion sparked the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II, forcing the displacement of millions and killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

Additional sources • AP, AFP