Desperate Iranian leaders have launched a nationwide recruitment drive, urging citizens to ‘defend the country’s soil’ as fears of a potential US ground invasion grow.
In recent days, mass text messages have been sent across the country inviting people to join a national mobilisation campaign.
The messages, shared on state television, call on Iranians to confront ‘the American-Zionist enemy’s threats against Iran‘s shores, islands and borders’, though no further details have been provided.
The recruitment push has been reinforced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has announced a campaign to enlist individuals for a variety of roles, including military service.
Volunteers as young as 12 have been invited to take part in patrols, man security checkpoints, tend to the wounded, cook or provide financial support, according to the Financial Times.
Human Rights Watch warned on Tuesday that ‘children at military facilities would be at serious risk of death and injury’ and urged Iranian authorities to ‘revoke the campaign and prohibit all military and paramilitary forces in Iran from enlisting children under 18’.
The organisation said it boiled down to the fact that ‘Iranian authorities are apparently willing to risk children’s lives for some extra manpower,’ adding that under international law, the recruitment of children under 15 is a war crime.
It remains unclear how many people have signed up, although an online portal linked to the text message campaign claims more than five million registrations.
Volunteers as young as 12 have been invited to take part in patrols, man security checkpoints, tend to the wounded, cook or provide financial support (Pictured: a boy with a toy gun at a pro-regime rally in Tehran)
A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran during the war
It is unknown if women are eligible to register as they are not conscripted in Iran.
Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the regime, officials appear to be relying on a loyal minority, including members of the Basij volunteer forces, which are believed to number in the millions.
However even Iranians critical of the government have said the threat of foreign invasion could compel them to enlist.
Speaking to the FT, one mechanic from western Tehran said: ‘If a ground war happens, I’ll go fight. I prefer to die defending my homeland than die in bed.’
Others remain skeptical, such as one 38-year-old architect who said: ‘I don’t want to be used like a chess piece. I would do anything for my country and my fellow citizens, but it’s clear that these three powers will eventually come to an agreement, and then I’ll feel like a fool for having been exploited.’
Some citizens say they would only take up arms under specific conditions. ‘If a ground war breaks out in Tehran, I will go to defend my homeland against American and Israeli forces,’ said one 35-year-old businessman.
‘But under the current form of warfare, I will not volunteer for any branch of this regime. I will never forget January 8 and 9, and how brutally they treated their own people.’
Analysts say the campaign draws on tactics used during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when millions were mobilised to fight.
Sanam Vakil of Chatham House told the FT the regime still retains a base of followers, estimating that they have up to 20 per cent regime supporters.
She added: ‘It will be interesting to see if they can make the recruitment work. They will sell it as a test of their base, but this is more about wartime support rather than permanent or uniform national unity’.
The mobilisation effort comes as Iran faces sustained military pressure. US and Israeli air strikes have targeted facilities linked to the Revolutionary Guards, Basij units, the army and police, while checkpoints in Tehran have also come under attack.
News agency Tasnim cited a senior military figure claiming enlistment requests have surged across the Revolutionary Guards, Basij and army, claiming that a one million-strong combat force had been mobilised. However, this has not been verified.
Rahim Nadali, deputy head of the Guards’ cultural division in Tehran, said last week that Iranians, including ‘youngsters’, had volunteered to help patrol streets and guard checkpoints.
Last month, 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed in a drone strike while accompanying his father at a Basij checkpoint in Tehran.
The child’s mother said her husband had taken their son to an ‘understaffed’ checkpoint ‘so he would be prepared for the days ahead’.
Witnesses say children are already visible on the streets, with one teacher saying she had seen children as young as ’13 or 14′ at checkpoints.
The secretary of war posted photos after a trip to the Middle East to meet US troops
It comes as the Pentagon is preparing for weeks-long ground operations in Iran, potentially involving thousands of US soldiers and Marines.
Special operations forces and conventional infantry units could be deployed if the President chooses to escalate the war.
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth declined to tell reporters on Tuesday whether or not the US military will deploy ground troops against Iran.
‘You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground,’ he said.
Hegseth added: ‘Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are.’
Meanwhile, the President on Monday threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants, oil wells, desalination plants and Kharg Island if the waterway is not opened ‘immediately’.
But according to the Wall Street Journal, he has told aides he would be willing to pull out of the conflict if the strait remains blocked.
During an address at the White House on Wednesday, Trump attempted to assure the US that the military was close to defeating Iran and pledged to bomb the Islamic Republic ‘back to the Stone Ages.’
Trump insisted the military operation to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon would not devolve into a ‘forever war’ like the US quagmires in Iraq and Vietnam.
‘We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,’ Trump said during a 20-minute address from The White House.
Trump said that because of the US military’s might, Americans no longer fear the threat of ‘nuclear blackmail’ from Tehran.
‘They were the bully of the Middle East, but they’re the bully no longer. This is a true investment in your children’s and your grandchildren’s future.’
He also noted that in ‘these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield.’
Trump also seemed to suggest he had ruled out going into Iran to get its enriched uranium.
‘The nuclear sites that we obliterated with the B-2 bombers have been hit so hard that it would take months to get near the nuclear dust,’ he said.
‘And we have it under intense satellite surveillance and control. If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we’ll hit them with missiles very hard again.’
The president encouraged countries reliant on oil through the Strait of Hormuz to ‘build some delayed courage’ and go ‘take it.’
Trump has been under growing pressure to end the war that has been pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other goods.
The price of Brent crude, the international standard, is up more than 40% since the start of the war.
Oil rose more than four percent and Asian stocks fell after Trump’s speech.
Brent crude, the international standard, jumped another 4.9 percent to $106.16 per barrel. Benchmark US crude rose four percent to $104.15 a barrel.
Trump did not mention a looming deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for global oil and gas transport, after he threatened Iran earlier with US attacks on its energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened.
He did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that have sent energy prices soaring.