The heir to the Peacock Throne is 42 and has not seen his homeland for a quarter of a century. But viewed from Virginia, where he lives on his dwindling inheritance, Mr Pahlavi is convinced the ayatollahs who deposed his father are on their own way out. "It could happen in the next few months, or in one or two years," Mr Pahlavi tells the Financial Times over tea. "This regime feels cornered. People are rejecting this regime in its totality, they want to find a secular alternative." He compares the situation now with 1978, a few months before the...