Leading Iranian opposition figures called Friday on their countrymen to bring down the Islamic regime through civil disobedience amid its war with Israel.
These calls, including by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, followed Israel’s strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites, which killed some of the regime’s senior officers and nuclear scientists.
In a speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed ordinary Iranians, telling them: “I believe the day of your liberation is near.”
On Friday morning, Pahlavi blamed the regime for the conflict with Israel and called on Iranians “to overthrow the Islamic Republic through street protests and nationwide strikes.”
“Ali Khamenei, the foolish leader of the anti-Iranian regime of the Islamic Republic, has once again embroiled Iran in a war; a war that is not [against] Iran and the Iranian nation, but [against] the Islamic Republic and Khamenei,” wrote Pahlavi, 64, who lives in the United States and France.
Netanyahu in his speech delivered similar message to the Iranian people. “Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years. I believe that the day of your liberation is near. And when that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient peoples will flourish once again,” the prime minister said.
In a statement, the government of Iran said, “Retaliation is not only our right—it is inevitable,” adding, “We will turn this violation into an unforgivable crime for the Israeli regime.”
Israel’s primary goal in striking Iran was to neutralize a threat to its existence, Netanyahu also said, explaining that Tehran had stepped up its efforts to develop nuclear weapons to a point where it had been months away from its goal.
Noting the name given to the operation, “Rising Lion,” the premier cited from the biblical book of Numbers (23:24): “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion.”
The operation’s name resonated with Iranian opposition activists, who noted that it corresponded with the prominent lion and sun figure at the center of the flag of the Imperial State of Iran, which was toppled and replaced by the Islamic Republic of Iran in a revolution in 1979.
“Rising Lion: The Persian lion will rise again. The Iranian people want nothing more than freedom and this mullah regime with the revolutionary guard will come to an end,” wrote Ulysse Ellian, a Dutch lawmaker of Iranian descent, on X on Friday.
Under the prince’s father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran was a close ally of Israel. The revolution brought to power the current regime, a fundamentalist theocracy, known also as the regime of the mullahs, meaning Shi’ite clerics. That regime has made war on Israel and the pledge to destroy it a key tenet of its foreign policy.
‘Went to hell last night’
Afshin Ellian, a prominent Iranian opposition figure and intellectual living in the Netherlands and Ulysse’s father, wrote on X: “Indeed, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders who went to hell last night were the murderers of Iranians, including these brave women during Women, Life, Freedom protests. No pity for the IRGC commanders.
“Rise up, Iranian people, and end this anti-Iranian system before it’s too late,” he added.
Afshin Ellian argued that Israel’s targeted strikes show that “Israel did not attack Iran, but only the Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
The Israeli strikes exposed the Iranian regime’s weakness, he said. “They cannot protect the airspace. Only slogans, declarations, and lamentations, while their most important commanders have been eliminated.”
The Israel Defense Forces said that its strikes on Friday had killed at least three prominent Iranian officers: Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami and the commander of Tehran’s Emergency Command were killed in the strikes across the country “by more than 200 fighter jets,” the IDF statement said.
Saeed Bashirtash, a Brussels-based Iranian opposition leader, elaborated on this aspect of the strikes in a video message in Persian.
“After last night’s attacks, the regime is on the verge of collapse more than ever. But the final blow to overthrow the Islamic Republic must be delivered by the Iranian people,” Bashirtash said. “The Islamic occupying regime is weaker than ever. The time has come to overthrow the regime.”
Pouria Zeraati, a television anchor at the U.K.-based channel Iran International, said he had not found any video clips of Iranian interceptions of Israeli aircraft, rockets or drones that had been reported to have been part of the Israeli strike. Zeraati said this suggested Iran was open to attack, and that its regime’s rhetoric about defending the country shows it is “an empty drum.”
The backing that U.S. President Donald Trump has given to Israel in the current escalation means “The only actor who can change the game in this critical situation is Bibi Netanyahu,” Zeraati wrote, using the Israeli prime minister’s nickname.
In Canada, Goldie Ghamari, an Iran-born local politician whose family fled Iran due to persecution by the Islamist government, noted that official broadcasts in state-run television channels bear an icon of a flag with the text: “Allah hu akbar,” “Allah is the greatest” in Arabic.
“Is this the Islamic Republic’s Black Swan moment?” she wrote on X. “This hasn’t happened before. They’re desperately trying to rally national support. … Except Iranians reject that flag. Iranians hate the Islamic Regime and want their lion and sun flag.”
Israel struck Iranian targets in 2024 in retaliation for Iranian attacks following the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Iran’s economy suffered following the Israeli strikes in April and October 2024, which were more limited than Friday’s operations.
This and Trump’s election, as well as the worsening of chronic power shortages, unleashed spiraling inflation in Iran and several mass strikes, including at Tehran’s iconic Grand Bazaar in December. A sprawling center of commerce, the bazaar is symbolically significant because it was a focus of the protests of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s inflation rate surpassed 35% this year, bringing the rial up to an exchange rate of 843,000 for a single U.S. dollar. Last month, Iran’s central bank announced plans to change the currency to the toman, which would be equivalent to 10,000 rials.
A 10,000-rial note, worth around $150 before the 1979 revolution, is now valued at less than 10 U.S. cents.