Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian crown prince and one of the main opposition figures against the Islamic Republic regime, called on Iranians on Sunday to regard all institutions and apparatuses responsible for the regime’s propaganda and for cutting communications as legitimate targets.
"Employees of state institutions, as well as members of the armed and security forces, have a choice: stand with the people and become allies of the nation, or choose complicity with the murderers of the people, and bear the nation’s lasting shame and condemnation," he said in a video recorded in Farsi and published on X/Twitter.
The call was made as he announced that the protests must advance into a new phase, which aims to "overthrow the Islamic Republic and reclaim our beloved Iran," he assured.
He also told Iranians abroad to "reclaim the embassies," displaying the pre-Islamic revolution flag, which features a lion instead of the Islamic Republic symbol and doesn't include the stylized text spelling out “Allahu akbar,” “God is great,” in Arabic, lining the center stripe.
"The time has come for them to be adorned with Iran’s national flag, in place of the disgraceful banner of the Islamic Republic," he demanded.
"Iran's freedom is near," he assured, and added that international help was near. "Standby for my next messages. Very soon, we will reclaim our beloved Iran from the Islamic Republic, and celebrations of freedom and victory will fill every corner of our country."
Doctors describe overwhelmed Tehran hospitals as protests spread across Iran
While Pahlavi pushes for protests to continue in Iran, medical staff described the situation on the ground as critical, with overflowing hospitals, severe shortages, and rising deaths in Tehran and other cities, according to accounts reaching Israel as the country remained under heavy restrictions on information.
Doctors and hospital workers said the past several nights brought an enormous influx of wounded and dead, to the point that even basic treatment became difficult. They described packed corridors, emergency rooms operating under extreme strain, and morgues that could no longer keep up with the number of bodies.
The protests began about two weeks ago in Tehran amid deep economic distress and quickly spread to more than 100 cities and towns across the country, the accounts said.
Estimates cited in those reports put the number of people killed or injured in the thousands, including children, while many others were arrested. Much of the harm, the medical staff said, involved young demonstrators.
Dr. Itay Gal contributed to this report.