“Iran is a country. The Islamic Republic is an occupying force. The Islamic Republic has nothing to do with Iran or Iranians.” I’m not sure who said this first or where I first read it, but it summarizes how Iranians feel about the Islamic Republic: a theocratic regime governed by a select few who have ruined one of the wealthiest countries in the world to the point that red meat has become a dream.
For Western audiences, the phrase “occupying forces” is not unfamiliar, yet it is usually associated with experiences from World War II and the Nazis. People typically expect occupying forces to be a foreign army occupying another land. How can Iranian forces occupy their own country?
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On June 14, 1940, the Nazi swastika flag was hoisted over the Eiffel Tower. This was a sign that the German military had officially occupied Paris. On June 4, 2026, Tasnim News Agency, a Revolutionary Guard-affiliated media outlet, posted a video on its X account showing a massive 500-meter flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah hoisted above Tehran’s iconic Azadi Tower. There are 85 years and 355 days between these two events; however, the concept and the message of both are the same: your land (France during WWII and Iran today) is occupied by terrorist groups.
Seeing the Hezbollah flag in Tehran hurts Iranians’ pride. While regime forces are weakened due to U.S.-Israel military operations, the regime has hired Iraqi militias to help suppress Iranian protests. On Sept. 22, 1980, Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. About 200,000 to 600,000 Iranian military personnel and civilians died during that war defending Iran. After 45 years, seeing Iraqi forces on the streets of Tehran and the Hezbollah flag hoisted on Azadi Tower, as well as the Revolutionary Guard launching a barrage of missiles toward Israel a few days ago as a warning to stop its operations in Lebanon, paints a clear picture for anyone paying attention.
What we are witnessing in Iran today — the presence of Iraqi and other foreign forces in Tehran — makes it clear that the Iranian government is not a government of the people. It has lost its legitimacy and, in its weakest state, has turned to those it once fought decades ago. Now it has recruited them and allows them to roam freely in the streets of Iran, where they insult, arrest, and torture Iranian women, children, and young people without consequence. This is something that even Saddam Hussein, at the height of his power, could hardly have imagined.
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These are important facts that get lost between the headlines. While ordinary Iranians cannot afford daily needs and groceries, the Iranian government’s “red line” is Hezbollah. While Iran’s economy is dealing with more than 50% inflation and U.S. inflation is at 4.2%, the Islamic regime hires mercenaries from Iraq to kill Iranians. If this is not the behavior of an occupying force, then what is?
This is why many Iranians, inside and outside of Iran, are supporting this operation and asking President Donald Trump to stay the course and finish the job. We are at a point where only complete regime change, not replacing one ayatollah with another, will satisfy Iranians. The world cannot have a nuclear Iran. As I always say, they should not even be allowed to hold a kitchen knife, let alone a nuclear bomb. Ayatollahs belong to history — to the darkest alleys of it — and for a safer and more prosperous Middle East and world, we need a new Iran: a free and democratic Iran that is at peace with its neighbors and a best friend to Israel.
Farzan Faramarzi is an Iranian-American writer and activist focused on human rights, Iranian politics, and diaspora advocacy.
