REVIEW & OUTLOOK

The Iranian People Answer the Call

Reza Pahlavi took a risk. From exile, the Shah’s son called on Iranians to rally against the regime at 8 p.m. on Thurs--day and Friday. If few had showed, Mr. Pahlavi would have been exposed as another big talker from safety abroad. Instead the Iranian people answered his call.

The protest wave accelerated, with the largest demonstrations in years in Tehran, Mashhad and across the country. Anti-regime protesters ruled the streets for hours, even in affluent areas in the capital, shouting “down with the dictator,” “freedom” and “ long live the Shah.”

Police vehicles were abandoned and set ablaze. Regime flags were ripped up. Several state buildings were burned in Tehran, along with a state propaganda building in Isfahan. A few security forces were killed, reportedly along with many protesters. A video has emerged of bodies strewn on a hospital floor.

More details are hard to come by because on Thursday the regime cut off internet and phone lines nationwide in an attempt to disrupt protests and cover up its repression. This is the regime’s playbook from 2019, when it killed 1,500 protesters.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t want President Trump to see the crackdown. On Thursday Mr. Trump reiterated that if the regime slaughters its people, “we’re going to hit them very hard.” For protesters facing down armed regime thugs, this and their own large numbers are their only protection.

But the regime’s earlier repression—at least 40 killed and 2,000 arrested before the blackout— didn’t cross Mr. Trump’s red line, he said Thursday. He attributed those deaths to “stampedes,” which gives the regime a pass.

The Ayatollah replied by taunting Mr. Trump. “If he can, let him manage his own country,” Mr. Khamenei said Friday, while Tehran’s public

prosecutor threatened rioters with the death penalty. But Iran’s state failures—in currency, prices, water, electricity and defense—are now undeniable, and a turn to massive violence could lead to an even larger uprising. Thursday and Friday made clear the protests have broad momentum. The longer they go on, the more Iranians overcome the fear on which the regime depends. Without weapons, the protesters will need sympathizers in the regime and the military to join their cause.

Revolutions also need leaders, and it’s good to see Mr. Pahlavi organize the protests and have other factions and strikers join in. The Iranians in the streets aren’t all in favor of restoring the monarchy, and Mr. Pahlavi says consistently that he wants to be a unifying national symbol and a merely transitional leader. But it’s notable that he has enough of a following that Iranians turned out when he asked.

Someone has to yoke the memory of Iran’s pre-1979 past to a live possibility of a better future. If the exiled Crown Prince can do that, the regime is in more trouble than it knows.

On Friday Mr. Pahlavi appealed to Mr. Trump for help. The U.S. can do so first by restoring communications. Coordination, including via Mr. Pahlavi and diaspora news sites, is essential. Contrary to what Vice President JD Vance suggested Thursday, this is no time for nuclear talks. Undercutting the Iranian people by giving the regime credibility and relief from sanctions would be the Barack Obama move.

This may be a rare moment when revolutionary change is possible. The fall of a regime that has spread terror and mayhem for 47 years would be earth-shaking. This is an opportunity— call it an obligation—for the U.S. and the world to rally to the side of the Iranian people.

The country’s streets explode at the time the Crown Prince appointed.