White House envoy Steve Witkoff met secretly over the weekend with the exiled former crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, to discuss the protests raging in Iran, according to a senior U.S. official.
Why it matters: This was the first high-level meeting between the Iranian opposition and the Trump administration since the protests began 15 days ago. Pahlavi is attempting to position himself to step in as a "transitional" leader if the regime falls.
Zoom in: Pahlavi, the son of the shah who was deposed during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, leads an opposition faction from exile in the U.S.
- Over the last two weeks, Pahlavi has been appearing on U.S. television networks calling on the Trump administration to intervene in support of the protests.
Behind the scenes: The White House national security team held a meeting Tuesday morning on options for responding to the protests. President Trump did not attend.
- A senior U.S. official told Axios that the deliberations inside the administration are at a relatively early stage.
- "We are still not in a decision-making mode regarding a military action at the moment," the official said, while acknowledging it's hard to predict where Trump will land.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in closed-door meetings in recent days that, at this stage, the administration is looking at non-kinetic responses to help the protesters, according to a source with direct knowledge.
Driving the news: The protests continued on Tuesday in cities across Iran. Estimates of the death toll have risen dramatically but also vary widely. Israel shared an assessment with the U.S. that at least 5,000 protesters had been killed, according to a U.S. official.
- "The Iranians are conducting massive repression," the U.S. official said.
- Trump called on the Iranian people on Tuesday to "keep protesting" and "take over" government institutions, adding: "Help is on its way."
- When asked by reporters on Tuesday what he meant, Trump said: "You are gonna have to figure that one out" and stressed he thinks Americans "should get out" of Iran.
The intrigue: When the protests started, the Trump administration didn't see Pahlavi as a significant political player.
- In an interview on the "Hugh Hewitt Show" last week, Trump declined to endorse him.
- But a senior U.S. official said the administration was surprised that during many of the demonstrations the protesters chanted Pahlavi's name.
- "There has been an ascendance of Pahlavi. They are chanting his name in demonstrations in many cities, and it seems to be happening organically," the U.S. official said.
Between the lines: Karim Sadjadpour, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, told Axios that Pahlavi provides a unifying focus for nationalist sentiment among the protesters, in contrast to the Islamist radicalism of the regime.
- "Most of these protestors were born after the 1979 revolution and have nostalgia for an era they never experienced, when the country's economy was growing, it was socially free, and it enjoyed a positive international image. Reza Pahlavi is the leader who for many Iranians best embodies that patriotism and that forward-looking nostalgia to make Iran great again," Sadjadpour said.
- Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran program at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, said Pahlavi's name has appeared with notable frequency in the protests, but it's difficult to tell whether that represents broad public backing within Iranian society.
- Even if there isn't widespread belief in Pahlavi's "leadership capabilities," it's possible that many Iranians would be willing to accept him as a leader at least "temporarily" out of a sense that he is preferable "to the present state of affairs," Zimmt said.
By the numbers: In public opinion polls run over the last few years, including as recently as November 2025, around one-third of Iranians supported Pahlavi while another one-third strongly opposed him, according to Dutch pollster Ammar Maleki. That's higher than any other Iranian opposition figure.
