State media broadcast that over 600,000 citizens have already registered for the program, with officials hoping to reach a million participants, according to Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh. The volunteers will be added to the Revolutionary Guard’s paramilitary Basij force, creating an extra layer of security for the regime.
The rally, staged in downtown Tehran, featured participants carrying national flags, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and even trampling U.S. and Israeli flags. Speakers, including new Basij head Hossein Taeb, warned that the volunteers would be ready for “full‑fledged defense” and that similar demonstrations would be organized in other cities.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, senior military commanders and other officials observed the march, while female Guard members in black headscarves sat beside truck‑mounted machine guns. Anti‑aircraft batteries and drones—tools the Guard has used against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz—were displayed, underscoring the show of military hardware.
The mobilization comes amid a months‑long conflict that began after the February attacks by the United States and Israel, a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, and fresh sanctions that have deepened Iran’s economic woes. The government has framed the campaign as a patriotic response to external threats and a means to reinforce national unity.
Human‑rights activists note that the rally also serves a domestic purpose: hard‑line figures like Taeb appear prepared to use the newly trained volunteers to suppress future dissent. In January, Iran experienced some of its largest protests in history, which authorities say resulted in more than 7,000 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests.
In May, officials claimed that more than 30 million Iranians had signed up via online forms or public gatherings to defend the theocracy, a figure the Associated Press could not independently verify.