‘I will take up arms’: US-Israeli war in Iran prompts surge of nationalism among Iranians

Follow our live coverage here.

ISTANBUL – During the anti-government protests that erupted in January, Abbas headed into the streets in Tehran. And while he did not take part in the demonstrations, he watched from a distance, supportive of the spirit of opposition and defiance.

The UK-trained economist and entrepreneur, in his 40s, helped bring a relative, who was badly injured in the head by security forces during the protests, to safety.

This incident enraged him and everyone in his circle, and set them against the regime then led by Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Abbas and others in his upscale Tehran world were open to the idea of a US-backed regime change operation to topple the government.

But since the war began on Feb 28, Abbas, who declined to share his last name for fear of reprisals, said he and most of his family and friends have shifted their stance.

“They’ve bombed hospitals and schools,” Abbas said, referring to the strikes by the US and Israel, in an interview with The Straits Times conducted over a messaging app, using a virtual private network to elude draconian internet restrictions. “They’re hitting residential areas.”

As for the protests, “they are behind us for now”, he said.

Certainly, the current war has rallied and mobilised regime supporters, who take part in nightly protests in city and town squares, with hundreds or even several thousands shaking their fists in defiance as air strikes hit and warplanes fly overhead.

The regime, now led by the late leader’s son Mojtaba Khamenei, is said to have launched a recruitment effort to sign up children as young as 12 to volunteer for support duties, such as food preparation, for the war effort.

Even many of those who still oppose the Islamic republic have put aside their animosity for now to stand by Iran, possibly complicating any US and Israeli plans to provoke a popular uprising to bring down the regime.

The hostile turned supportive

The US-Israeli war on Iran was originally framed as a way to come to the rescue of protesters opposed to the regime, with US President Donald Trump declaring in January that help was on the way.

Many Iranians, both in the country and abroad, had welcomed the war as a way to topple the Islamic republic, but a palpable shift has taken place. Some who were ambivalent about the war but hostile to the regime have opted, for now, to side with the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite military force.

“What I clearly see are people, who until now had no sympathy for the regime, siding with the Islamic republic – and thanking the IRGC for being the servant of territorial integrity,” said an international official living in Tehran. “Many of the people I know here are also positively surprised by the level of response by the Islamic republic and happy whenever Dubai is hit.”

Others who originally supported the war now oppose it or are despondent.

“Right now, people are not supporting the war,” said Niki, a 20-something Tehran resident who participated in the January protests and supported the war and restoration of former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, a Maryland resident and opposition figure. “I don’t know what to do. But we started it; I guess we need to finish it.”

In January, Iran’s ruling clerics and the IRGC killed thousands as they quashed nationwide street protests sparked by anger over the weak economy. That crackdown had prompted Mr Trump to threaten to intervene militarily on the protesters’ behalf, though the focus of his threats soon shifted to Iran’s contentious nuclear programme.

Battlefield missteps changing Iranians’ perception

Iranians blame US and Israeli battlefield missteps and rhetoric for the shift in their attitude towards the regime. They cited the alleged Feb 28 US air strike on an elementary school in the southern city of Minab, in which 168 boys and girls and their teachers were killed, as well as the destruction of university campuses, oil and electricity infrastructure, and pharmaceutical and steel factories.

Iranian diaspora influencers who were dancing for joy in TikTok videos on Feb 28 have gone quiet – or resumed videos about mediation or improved nutrition.

A poll conducted early in the war by the National Iranian American Council and polling agency Zogby Analytics showed that Iranians in the US were evenly divided between being supporters and opponents of the war. But a more recent poll showed that about two-thirds were opposed to the war.

Iranian-American film-maker Keon Reza Sheikhvand said during a recent social media forum: “I was one of those who were aligned with the strikes early on, along with my friends and relatives.

“There was hope that there was a plan in place... and people would rise up. That’s clearly not happening and not going to happen. I’m very concerned, as are many Iranians. We’re definitely not rallying around the flag, but we want this to end.”

German-Iranian international lawyer Bijan Tavassoli, 34, said he was golfing at a Trump golf course in California in 2025 and considered himself a fan of the President. “People actually believed what they were being told, that there’s going to be a peaceful transition,” he said. “But people died. Too many people have died.”

Nationalist sentiments provoked

Many Iranians were aghast by Mr Trump’s vow to bomb Iran back into the “Stone Age” during his first prime-time address on the Iran war on April 1 – words echoed by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth in a social media post.

Iran expert Alex Vatanka from the Middle East Institute in Washington said in a recent forum: “The reaction to President Trump’s comment about putting Iran back in the Stone Age really has not gone down well at all, and I’m being generous in how I describe it. If the United States starts blowing things up just for the sake of it, I think what happens is the regime benefits.”

On the streets of Iran, some are already rallying around the flag. Abbas described upscale Tehran residents in Mercedes or Range Rovers showing up at pro-regime rallies with Islamic republic flags attached to their vehicles.

The international official described instances of those involved in the January protests against the authorities bringing food and water to volunteer Basij militiamen patrolling the streets – the same group involved in the violent crackdown on protesters. The official also described one openly gay physician who spent a month in prison during protests in 2022 now blaring nationalist songs from his balcony, and even attending the pro-regime Jerusalem Day rally holding an Iranian flag.

Threats by Mr Trump and US officials to take Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal triggered many Iranians’ nationalist sentiments, he said. “If the US does anything with Kharg or other islands, no doubt this phenomenon will increase 10 times. Territorial integrity is no joke here!”

Around 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports are piped to Kharg, so whoever holds the island effectively holds the key to Iran’s economic lifeline.

Instead of fleeing the war, many Iranians abroad have begun flooding back to be with friends and family and to stand by the country.

Acclaimed Iranian film director Jafar Panahi, who had been sentenced in absentia to one year in prison by the Iranian Revolutionary Court in December while he was travelling abroad for an international awards campaign, returned to the country in late March.

Mr Panahi, whose work has always spoken against the violence and repression in Iran, won the Cannes Palme d’Or for his film It Was Just An Accident.

“I have only one passport, one homeland,” he reportedly said. “I have come to die for it.”

The judiciary has reportedly granted him a pardon. The regime has been exploiting the surge in Iranian nationalism. Its messaging has included references to pre-Islamic history as well as appeals to religious themes.

Waves of protests had drained the Islamic republic of legitimacy before the conflict, forcing it to rely on a smaller and smaller base of hardcore protesters. The war gives it a chance to reclaim control of the streets and regain a measure of public support. Its official and semi-official media channels often broadcast interviews with women – sans the once mandatory hijab – at pro-regime rallies.

“I’m against the policies of the Islamic republic. I have never gone to the 22 Bahman march, and I never will,” said a woman attending a recent pro-regime rally, in a video posted online, referring to the annual celebration of the founding of Iran’s revolutionary system.

“But now, my country has been violated and I can’t accept it. No country has the right to violate my country, and if necessary, I will take up arms and defend my country.”