{"id":6980,"date":"2026-04-23T11:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/6980\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:17:09","slug":"exiled-iranian-prince-calls-on-germanys-merz-to-halt-talks-with-regime-in-tehran-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/6980\/","title":{"rendered":"Exiled Iranian prince calls on Germany\u2019s Merz to halt talks with regime in Tehran \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>European leaders are gathering in Cyprus Thursday for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/5-things-watch-out-eu-crisis-summit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a high-stakes summit<\/a> focused largely on the fallout from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, now entering its eighth week under a shaky ceasefire. European leaders are split over how to respond to a conflict that has destabilized energy markets and strained relations with the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Pahlavi, who has presented himself as a leader capable of steering a transitional administration, called on EU leaders to apply more pressure on the regime in Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of things that Europe can do that it hasn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing has been done by putting more pressure on the regime to stop executions. Nothing has been done to force them to release political prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pahlavi was set to meet German lawmakers, including Armin Laschet, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Bundestag and a member of Merz\u2019s conservatives. Members of the chancellor\u2019s Cabinet, however, have refused to meet the exiled prince.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe German government sees no reason to seek dialogue with him,\u201d said Stefan Kornelius, Merz\u2019s spokesperson, on Wednesday. \u201cThe Iranian regime is currently the point of contact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pahlavi\u2019s visit to Berlin has stoked controversy, with politicians across the political spectrum and members of the Iranian diaspora in Germany criticising lawmakers for meeting with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Pahlavi family represents the authoritarian regime that existed before 1979. His father had political opponents persecuted, tortured and murdered,\u201d Berlin\u2019s conservative justice senator, Felor Badenberg, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tagesspiegel.de\/politik\/schah-sohn-reza-palavi-besucht-berlin-kritik-an-geplantem-treffen-im-bundestag-15507798.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">told Tagesspiegel<\/a>. \u201cThis is deeply rooted in the collective memory of the Iranian people. To this day, Reza Pahlavi has failed to clearly distance himself from it,\u201d added the Iranian-born politician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European leaders are gathering in Cyprus Thursday for a high-stakes summit focused largely on the fallout from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6757,2373,6758,6759,1748,393,5,253,409,2379],"class_list":["post-6980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-armin-laschet","tag-conflict","tag-cyprus","tag-democracy","tag-european-politics","tag-friedrich-merz","tag-germany","tag-iran","tag-war","tag-war-in-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}