PM urges Iranians to celebrate Persian fire festival, in apparent bid to spark protests
Remarks come as Israeli officials reported to assess protesters would be ‘slaughtered’; some in Iran said marking Chaharshanbe Suri publicly despite Islamic Republic’s warning not to
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to celebrate on Tuesday night a fire festival derided as pagan by the Islamic Republic, apparently hoping to spark demonstrations despite Israeli officials’ reported assessment that anti-regime protesters would be “slaughtered.”
Unverified footage published by Iranian opposition outlets showed crowds marking Chaharshanbe Suri with bonfires in Tehran and other Iranian cities, after local authorities warned against the celebrations, citing the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign. At the same time, Iranian authorities on Tuesday called on supporters to rally nationwide against “potential plots” by the “Zionist enemy.”
The Chaharshanbe Suri holiday is marked on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz, the Persian new year, which starts Friday evening.
Celebrations surrounding the Persian new year have in recent years sometimes featured protests against the regime, which took power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and discourages the non-Muslim celebrations.
In an English-language video statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu told Iranians, “Celebrate, and Happy Nowruz. We’re watching from above.”
Speaking from the Air Force command bunker at the IDF’s Kirya headquarter in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu noted Israel in the past day killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani and Basij volunteer force head Gholamreza Soleimani, architects of the regime’s massacre of protesters in January.
I'm here with Israel's Defense Minister, our Chief of Staff, the head of the Mossad, the Chief of Air Force, our senior commanders. In the past 24 hours, we knocked out two of the terrorist chieftains, the top terrorist chieftains of this tyranny.
Our aircraft are hitting the… pic.twitter.com/lFJKEMvgxR
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) March 17, 2026
“In the past 24 hours, we knocked out two of the terrorist chieftains, the top terrorist chieftains of this tyranny,” he said. “Our aircraft are hitting the terror operatives on the grounds, in the crossroads, in the city squares.”
“This is meant to enable the brave people of Iran to celebrate the Festival of Fire,” said Netanyahu.
The comments came hours after the Washington Post reported that senior Israeli officials assessed that if Iranians take to the streets, “the people will get slaughtered” because the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “has the upper hand” over them.
The assessment was reportedly cited in a cable to the US State Department that was circulated Friday by the US embassy in Israel. According to the report, the cable was a summary of meetings held last week between US officials and members of Israel’s Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry and National Security Council. The authenticity of the cable was verified by two State Department officials, the newspaper said.
The cable reportedly said Israel had expected there to be “more chaos” within Iran’s regime following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli bombing campaign.
'جشن #چهارشنبهسوری در چیتگر #تهران'
ویدیوی دریافتی: 'سهشنبه ۲۶ اسفند'#Iran #Tehran pic.twitter.com/w3uNuHUuZV— Vahid Online (@Vahid) March 17, 2026
But instead, the regime is “not cracking” and is willing to “fight to the end,” with its grip on power demonstrated by its continued ability to launch drones and ballistic missiles “everywhere they want to,” Israeli officials told their US counterparts, according to the cable cited by the Washington Post.
The “stubborn” regime would have to be “taken down from within,” Israeli officials were quoted saying as they speculated the regime could become more moderate if Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, were killed.
Meanwhile, the younger Khamenei was “still in charge,” and was even “more aligned” with hardliners from the IRGC than his father had been, the report said, quoting the cable.
Still, the Israeli officials cited in the US cable said they hoped Iranians would revolt and that the US should prepare to support them if they do, according to the Washington Post.
The US and Israel launched a bombing campaign on Iran on February 28 after a massive US military buildup in the region and repeated threats by US President Donald Trump to strike Iran, first over its crackdown on anti-regime protesters in January and more recently over its nuclear program. Iran has responded to the bombing with missile and drone strikes across the region.
It’s unclear how many people were killed in Iran’s brutal crackdown, with estimates from human rights and opposition groups running at between 7,000 and 36,000 people killed, mostly protesters.
The Times of Israel Community.