The leaders of two prominent Iranian opposition factions have urged Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down and spare more bloodshed, in the wake of unprecedented American attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, AFP reports.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution, and Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the outlawed People’s Mujahedin (MEK), which is outlawed in Iran, said in separate statements that Khamenei must quit after over a week of fighting between Iran and Israel.
“Now Khamenei must go,” said Rajavi, saying that Khamenei’s “unpatriotic project” had now “all gone up in smoke”. “No to appeasement, no to war and yes to regime change — changing the religious dictatorship by the Iranian people and the Iranian resistance,” she said.
Pahlavi, who is the figurehead for supporters of the ousted Iranian monarchy, said, “The only sure way to achieve peace is for this regime to now end”.
“As Khamenei considers how to respond from his underground bunker, I say to him: For the sake of the Iranian people, respond by stepping down,” he said.
