Iranian opposition figure Reza Pahlavi on Saturday said U.S. military intervention in Iran could save lives and urged President Donald Trump’s administration not to spend too long negotiating with Tehran’s clerical rulers on a nuclear deal.

The exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah told Reuters in an interview that there were signs that the Iranian government was on the brink of collapse and that an attack could weaken it or accelerate its fall.
Pahlavi was speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where officials from the Iranian government are banned.

“It’s a matter of time. We are hoping that this attack will expedite the process and the people can be finally back in the streets and take it all the way to the ultimate regime’s downfall,” said Pahlavi, who is based in the United States and has lived outside Iran since before his father was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A campaign of mass arrests and intimidation has led to the arrests of thousands as Iranian authorities seek to deter further protests after last month’s crackdown on the bloodiest unrest since 1979.

The protests began on December 28 as a modest demonstration in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over economic hardship and quickly spread nationwide.

Iran’s opposition is fragmented among rival groups and ideological factions – including the monarchists who back Pahlavi – and appears to have little organized presence inside the Islamic Republic.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Trump sounded skeptical about the level of Pahlavi’s support inside Iran.

The Trump administration has engaged with Iran to see if a nuclear deal can be struck as Washington amassed military forces in the region. U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week and further talks in the coming week are expected.

“People are hoping that at some point the decision will be made that there’s no use, there’s no point, we’re not going to get anywhere with negotiations. Therefore, that’s time for the United States to intervene and do what President Trump promised he will do, to have the people’s back,” Pahlavi said.

“Intervention is a way to save lives,” he added.

On Friday, in a speech to U.S. troops in North Carolina, Trump said Iran has been difficult in nuclear negotiations and suggested that instilling fear in Tehran may be necessary to resolve the standoff peacefully.

Two U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity told Reuters on Friday that the U.S. military was preparing for the possibility of a sustained, weeks-long operation against Iran if Trump ordered an attack.

The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries.

The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear program, after Trump amassed military forces in the region, raising fears of new military action.

U.S. officials said on Friday the Pentagon was sending an additional aircraft carrier to the Middle East, adding thousands more troops along with fighter aircraft, guided-missile destroyers and other firepower capable of waging attacks and defending against them.

Trump, speaking to U.S. troops on Friday at a base in North Carolina, said it had “been difficult to make a deal” with Iran.

“Sometimes you have to have fear. That’s the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of,” Trump said.

Asked for comment on the preparations for a potentially sustained U.S. military operation, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “President Trump has all options on the table with regard to Iran.”

“He listens to a variety of perspectives on any given issue, but makes the final decision based on what is best for our country and national security,” Kelly said.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

The United States sent two aircraft carriers to the region last year, when it carried out strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

However, June’s “Midnight Hammer” operation was essentially a one-off U.S. attack, with stealth bombers flying from the United States to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran staged a very limited retaliatory strike on a U.S. base in Qatar.

RISKS INCREASING

The planning underway this time is more complex, the officials said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have warned that in case of strikes on Iranian territory, they could retaliate against any U.S. military base.

The U.S. maintains bases throughout the Middle East, including in Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Trump for talks in Washington on Wednesday, saying that if an agreement with Iran were reached, “it must include the elements that are vital to Israel.”

Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, but has ruled out linking the issue to missiles.

The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability after months of tumult following the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising.

Latest counts in an election seen as the South Asian nation’s first truly competitive in years gave the BNP and its allies at least 212 of the 299 seats up for grabs, domestic TV channels said. The opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies won 70 seats in the Jatiya Sangsad, or House of the Nation, Reuters reported.

The BNP, which returns to power after 20 years, thanked the people soon after winning a majority in the overnight vote count and called for special prayers on Friday for the nation and its people.

“Despite winning … by a large margin of votes, no celebratory procession or rally shall be organised,” the party said in a statement calling for prayers nationwide.

A clear outcome had been seen as key for in the Muslim-majority nation of 175 million after months of deadly anti-Hasina unrest disrupted everyday life and industries such as garments, in the export of which Bangladesh is No.2 globally.

BNP leader Tarique Rahman is widely expected to be sworn in as prime minister. The son of the party’s founder, former president Ziaur Rahman, he returned in December to the capital, Dhaka, from 18 years abroad.

Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 85, held office as interim head after Hasina fled to neighbouring India in August 2024.

Now in exile in New Delhi, Hasina long dominated Bangladesh politics along with Rahman’s mother, Khaleda Zia, while his father was a leading independence figure who ruled from 1977 to 1981 before he was assassinated.

Manual counting of paper ballots will run until at least noon on Friday, officials said, since starting on Thursday immediately after polls closed.

The BNP win with more than 200 seats is one of its biggest, surpassing its 2001 victory with 193, although Hasina’s Awami League, which ruled for 15 years and was barred from contesting this time, ssecured a bigger tally of 230 in 2008.

But bigger tallies for both parties in elections of other years were widely seen as one-sided, boycotted or contentious.

JAMAAT PROMISES POSITIVE OPPOSITION

Nightime throngs of supporters cheered and shouted slogans at the BNP headquarters in Dhaka as the scale of the party’s landslide became clear.

The head of its main rival, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, conceded defeat and vowed that his party would not engage in the “politics of opposition” just for the sake of doing so.

“We will do positive politics,” Shafiqur Rahman told reporters.

However, the National Citizen Party (NCP), led by youth activists who played a key role in toppling Hasina and was a part of the Jamaat-led alliance, won just five of the 30 seats it contested.

Turnout appeared on track to exceed the 42% of the last election in 2024, with media saying more than 60% of registered voters were expected to have participated.

More than 2,000 candidates, many independents among them, were on the ballot, which featured a record number of at least 50 parties. Voting in one constituency was postponed after a candidate died.

Broadcaster Jamuna TV said more than 2 million voters chose “Yes”, while more than 850,000 said “No” in a on constitutional reforms held alongside the election, but there was no official word on the outcome.

The changes include two-term limits for prime ministers and stronger judicial independence and women’s representation while providing for neutral interim governments during election periods, and setting up a second house of the 300-seat parliament.