Just hours following Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct appeal to the Iranian people and said: "This is your opportunity to stand up [to the regime]."
The regime’s standing not only with the international community, amid its vast support of state-sponsored terrorism, which has impacted neighboring nations from Syria and Yemen to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, coupled with years of internal unrest, could mean regime change is on the horizon.
"We are in the midst of one of the greatest military operations in history," Netanyahu said Friday. "The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for almost 50 years, threatens to destroy our country."
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The Israeli leader said Jerusalem’s goal in hitting Iran’s top military targets is to thwart the nuclear and missile threats that Iran poses towards the Jewish nation, which he argued weakens the regime and poses a unique opportunity for dissidents within.
Minority groups make up some 50% of the Iranian population, and some Iranian specialists have argued that if the minority groups, which are frequent targets of oppression in Iran, were to unite against the regime, they could play a critical role in toppling the regime.
Iran has faced increasing opposition since the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, who in September 2022 was arrested by Iran's morality police and later died in a hospital due to her injuries.
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Amini’s death sparked mass protests across the country, which Iran brutally clapped back at and continues to execute those arrested during the demonstrations.
Fox News Digital was told by Yigal Carmon, President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), that members of the Ahwazis, a minority group in south-western Iran, which make up 6-8% of the population, have already been arrested by the regime amid its fears another internal rebellion could brew alongside war with Israel.
It is unclear if any demonstrations have yet begun or if their arrests were pre-emptively carried out.
"A regime change will be supported by many," Carmon said. "The fact is that only the minorities can bring a regime change because they are militarily organized."
"A coalition of non-Persian ethnic groups could topple the regime in a few months," he said. "Unlike the Persian anti-regime population, the non-Persian anti-regime population is militarily organized."
Other minority groups, like the Kurds, who make up 10%-15% of Iran’s population and who live primarily in the northwestern border areas near Iraq and Turkey, as well as the Baloch people, who encompass another 5% of the population and live along Iran’s southeast border with Pakistan, also have a long history of opposing the regime, though they have also suffered brutal consequences.
"It has never been weaker. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard. Woman, Life, Freedom Zan, Zendegi, Azadi," Netanyahu said. "As I said yesterday and many times before, Israel's fight is not against the Iranian people.
"Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you," he added.
