Photo: Alamy
The United States and Israel launched major aerial strikes against Iran after negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions failed. President Donald Trump later urged the Iranian people to capitalize on this moment to take their government back.
“The hour of your freedom is at hand,” President Trump said, addressing the citizens of Iran. “Stay sheltered, don’t leave your home, it’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.”
He continued, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”
“For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond,” he noted.
He added, “America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”
The president also called on members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, armed forces, and Iranian police to peacefully “lay down [their] weapons and have complete immunity,” or alternatively “face certain death.”
“Lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death,” he said.
Footage posted to X after the attacks showed many Iranian citizens seemingly celebrating the attacks against the country’s repressive regime.
One video showed Iranian high school students cheering at the massive explosions from the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.
Another shows cars and people under a bridge at Meydan Behesht in Tehran, with audio including chants like “Freedom!”
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, an anti-Iranian regime group, also outlined a 10-point plan for Iran’s future following Saturday’s military strikes.
The plan calls for “freedom of speech, freedom of political parties, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and the internet” along with the “dissolution and disbanding of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the terrorist Qods Force, plainclothes groups, the unpopular Bassij, the Ministry of Intelligence, Council of the Cultural Revolution, and all suppressive patrols and institutions in cities, villages, schools, universities, offices, and factories.”
These celebrations follow Ayatollah Khamenei’s killing of citizens protesting his government. Over 36,500 Iranians were reportedly killed by the regime’s security forces earlier in January.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration authorized Operation Epic Fury against Iran, carrying out targeted strikes against the terrorist regime on Saturday following Iran’s failure to dismantle its nuclear program.
“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime—a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” President Trump announced in an eight-minute video posted Saturday to Truth Social.
“From Lebanon to Yemen, and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts—and it was Iran’s proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7 attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage,” he said.
Calling Iran the “world’s number-one state sponsor of terror,” the president added that this terrorist regime could “never have a nuclear weapon,” a promise for which he has been consistently adamant.
Last June, the U.S. carried out “Operation Midnight Hammer” and destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities. The U.S. then urged Iran to cease all future development of nuclear weapons, but the regime ultimately refused and continued development.
The president insinuated that because Iran would likely use nuclear missiles against the U.S. and European allies if it had the ability, the U.S. would continue to “obliterate” them.
“We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated,” he said. “We are going to annihilate their navy, we are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people—including many Americans.”
He continued, “And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.”