Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah, believes the clerical state that toppled his father is on the brink of crumbling. What Iranians need now, he says, is stronger support from the West. "Is the regime fragmented, is it fragile, is it bordering on the precipice? Yes, it is, but like anything else, if you throw them a lifeline, they'll catch a second breath and survive a bit," Pahlavi tells AFP in an interview in Washington, near where he lives in exile. "We have an opportunity to put the final nail in the coffin," Pahlavi adds, as the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi is sworn in as the eighth president of the Islamic republic. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES