Reza Pahlavi, a leader of the Iranian opposition in exile, on Saturday called the joint Israeli-U.S. military strikes in Iran a “humanitarian intervention” that offered Iranians a chance to “reclaim” their country.
“The aid that the President of the United States promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived,” Pahlavi said in a video message he posted on X shortly after the launch of “Operation Roaring Lion,” the name Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used on Sunday to refer to his country’s actions in Iran. Pahlavi did not mention Israel in his speech.
The joint operation is a “humanitarian intervention; and its target is the Islamic Republic, its repressive apparatus, and its machinery of slaughter—not the country and great nation of Iran,” said Pahlavi, who lives in the United States and whose father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was the shah of Iran before he was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the ayatollah regime to power.
Iranian authorities have killed thousands of people in several waves of internal protests, including one that broke out on Dec. 28, 2025.
Reza Pahlavi asked U.S. President Donald Trump to “exercise the utmost caution to preserve the lives of civilians and my compatriots” and asked officials in Iran to turn against the regime because “Your duty is to defend the people, not a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime.”
Pahlavi told his fellow countrymen: “We must stay focused on our ultimate goal: reclaiming Iran.” He asked Iranian to stay in their homes but be “ready so that, at the appropriate time—which I will announce to you precisely—you can return to the streets for the final action.
“We are very close to final victory,” he added.
Afshin Ellian, a Tehran-born critic of the regime living in the Netherlands, echoed Pahlavi’s message, writing on X that the end of the regime is “near” and calling on Iranians to “carry out the Prince’s decrees with discipline.”
The Iranian nation, Ellian wrote, “will write history.”
Pouria Zeraati, a television anchor at the U.K.-based channel Iran International, quoted Netanyahu in Farsi on X, using the prime minister’s nickname. “Bibi called on all the people of Iran, from the four corners of the country, to rise up for the overthrow of the regime.
Zeraati added a “victory” emoji to his text.
Both Trump and Netanyahu, in their video messages announcing the new operation, ended their addresses with a call on Iranians to help overthrow the Islamic regime.
To the Iranian people, Trump said: “Your hour of freedom is at hand … when we are finished take over your government, it will be yours to take.”
