Exiled prince warns against deals with Iran, armed allies

The exiled son of Iran's Shah ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution warned against agreements with the theocratic government that replaced his father's rule or its armed Islamist allies, citing Tehran's rights abuses and role in conflicts throughout the region.

Reza Pahlavi was speaking in Washington at a gathering of the Israeli American Council, a top advocate for Israeli interests where former President Donald Trump also spoke on Thursday evening.

"No deal can be made with such a regime and no accommodation with its proxies," the exiled prince told the crowd to cheers, adding that its Islamic system was doomed to fail and a new government could make peace with Israel.

The remarks came as tensions in the Middle East ramped up sharply this week after back-to-back blasts targeting communications devices carried by Hezbollah members rocked Lebanon beginning on Tuesday.

Israel said on Friday an air strike had killed a top Hezbollah commander and other leaders of an elite unit from the Iran-backed group.

Pahlavi, who lives in the United States and has a substantial following among Iran's diaspora, expressed hope that normalization accords reached between some Arab states and Israel under the Trump administration could be extended to include Iran.

"If we work together, we can secure prosperity and dignity for our people and stability and security for our world and expand from the Abraham accords to the Cyrus accords", he said.

President Trump also expressed his hope that Iran would join in agreements recognizing Israel when addressing the same event the previous evening.

"I gave (Israel) the Abraham accords, which is amazing - nobody thought that was possible. Four strong powerful countries signed. Think of it: I would've had every country sign, I might've even had Iran sign, as crazy as that sounds".