Iran’s Crown Prince in Exile Reza Pahlavi made a public address on social network X amid the escalating situation around Iran.
“Crucial moments are ahead,” he said, noting that the aid previously promised by US President Donald Trump to the “brave people of Iran” has already arrived. Pahlavi said it was a “humanitarian intervention” against the Islamic Republic, “its repressive apparatus and killing machine,” and not against the country or its people.
At the same time, he emphasised that the “final victory” must be won by the Iranians themselves, and said that “the time to return to the streets is approaching”.
In the address, Pahlavi called on the military, law enforcers and security forces to join the people. He said they are sworn to protect Iran and its citizens, not the country’s political leadership. He warned that otherwise they would “sink with the ship” of Iran’s supreme leader.
Separately, Iran’s crown prince asked the US president in an exile to “exercise utmost caution to preserve civilian lives,” stressing that the Iranian nation is “an ally of the free world.”
Pahlavi urged Iranian citizens to “stay at home for the time being,” remain calm and wait for further instructions on possible protests. He promised to keep in touch via social media, satellite channels or radio in case of internet outages.
“We are very close to final victory… Long live Iran,” the address said.
Earlier, on the morning of February 28, the Israeli military struck Iranian territory and explosions went off in Tehran, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said. According to the Israeli side, “the attack was sudden”. At the same time as it began, the IDF sent out a nationwide warning urging citizens to stay close to secure premises.
“This is a preventive message to prepare the population for the possibility of rockets being launched towards the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
According to Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, the country has launched a “preventive military operation” against Iran, which “aims to neutralise the potential threat from Tehran as well as to prevent possible strikes on Israeli territory”.
A United States official confirmed America’s participation in the operation against Iran in comments to Radio Liberty. The US official says the airstrikes are aimed at “weakening Iran’s security infrastructure”.
US leader Donald Trump later noted that America had indeed launched a military campaign against Iran “to eliminate threats from the current regime”. He called the country’s leadership a “brutal group of people” whose activities pose a direct danger to the US, “our troops, our bases overseas and our allies around the world”.
The media also wrote that according to the Iranian official, the country is preparing to retaliate and “the response will be crushing.”
Iran subsequently launched rockets towards Israel in response, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a post on social networking site X.
“Defence systems are working to intercept the threat. In the past few minutes, the Home Front Command has sent an alert directly to mobile phones in the relevant areas,” the military said.
According to the IDF, sirens went off in several areas across the country following the discovery of rockets launched from Iran towards Israel.
It was later learnt that Iran had launched missile strikes on military installations in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, with explosions also reported in Kuwait. A huge traffic jam formed at the exit from Dubai, local media wrote. Bahrain called the attacks on its territory “insidious” and confirmed that they targeted facilities and infrastructure.