Iranian officials called on “young people” to form human chains around the country’s power plants, in a desperate bid to ward off promised U.S. airstrikes on the country’s power grid.
Tuesday will mark the end of President Donald Trump’s delayed deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and strike a deal, or face the destruction of its power plants. With no signs of Iranian and U.S. negotiators nearing a deal, Tuesday will see whether Trump will follow through on his threats. As a last-ditch defense measure, lacking air defenses to resist the strikes, Iranian officials have resorted to calling on the country’s youth to act as human shields, betting that Washington will shy away from extensive civilian casualties.
Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents Secretary Alireza Rahimi called on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around Iran’s power plants, which he said were “our national assets and capital.”
In the video address, aired on state television, the official gave the call a positive spin, saying it reflected the youth’s commitment to a bright future.
“We hope that with the participation of young people across the country, this human chain will be formed around the power plants, and it will be a sign of the youth’s commitment to protecting the country’s infrastructure and building a bright future,” Rahimi said.
The move isn’t unprecedented — Iranians have formed human chains around nuclear facilities in the past to ward off Israeli airstrikes.
With its military and political leadership devastated, Iran has increasingly turned to controversial methods of enlisting the civilian population to help resist the U.S.-Israeli assault.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has embarked on a rigorous civilian recruitment drive to replace its heavy losses, increasingly relying on its paramilitary Basij to shore up its forces. In recent weeks, it launched a mass text message-based recruitment drive, urging the populace to join the fight against “the American-Zionist enemy’s threats against Iran’s shores, islands and borders.”
The Guard has separately launched a recruitment drive targeting youths, seeking children as young as 12 to guard security checkpoints, carry out patrols, tend to the wounded, and perform other supporting tasks. A 13-year-old was recently killed in a strike on a checkpoint after he accompanied his Basij father.
The Iranian regime’s form of Shia Islam emphasizes the importance of martyrdom, reflecting Shiites’ reverence for Imam Hossein and his companions, who were killed by an overwhelming hostile force at the 680 Battle of Karbala. State propaganda often encourages “martyrdom,” with this reaching its zenith during the Iran-Iraq War, when the government would encourage suicidal tactics with limited tactical effectiveness.
In past conflicts, the youth of Iran have been targeted for recruitment, with the Islamic regime pushing propaganda exhorting youth “martyrdom” in schools. Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh, a 13-year-old Basij soldier who destroyed an Iraqi tank by throwing himself under it and detonating a grenade belt, is widely commemorated as a hero by the government.
Meanwhile, the belligerence of Trump’s rhetoric has only increased. He warned on Monday that every bridge in Iran would be destroyed on Tuesday, and every power plant “will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
IRAN LAUNCHES MASS TEXT-BASED RECRUITMENT DRIVE, INCLUDING MINORS, TO JOIN TARGETED SECURITY FORCES
He then floated the total destruction of Iranian civilization in a Tuesday Truth Social post.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” Trump wrote, adding, “God Bless the Great People of Iran!”