WASHINGTON, United States, March 5, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The son of the last shah toppled in Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution said Thursday that whoever the clerical government chooses to succeed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be illegitimate.

Reza Pahlavi, who has positioned himself as an alternative if the Islamic republic falls, said on social media that "victory is near" after Khamenei was killed last weekend as the United States and Israel launched the war.

"Any attempt to appoint a successor for him is pre-destined to fail. Whomever is introduced... will lack legitimacy and will be considered an accomplice to the bloody record of this regime and its criminal leaders," Pahlavi said.

Khamenei was Iran's top leader since 1989, pursuing a hardline policy of repressing dissent at home, developing a contested nuclear program and confronting regional rivals led by Israel.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Khamenei, is among the contenders to succeed his father.

Pahlavi said it made no difference if the next supreme leader were "Mojtaba or Hassan" -- a reference to another potential contender, Hassan Rouhani, the former president who was considered a moderate within the system and championed diplomacy with the United States.

Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the Washington area, has voiced hope for mass defections. He has said that he wants to be a transitional leader before a referendum is called to establish a secular democracy.

He urged Iranian security forces to "hand over power immediately and without violence."

"Declare your allegiance to the nation's Lion and Sun Revolution, and contribute to Iran's stable and secure transition to a democratically elected national government," he said.

The lion was a symbol of the ousted monarchy while the sun has deep resonance in Iran' pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition.