The National Council of Resistance of Iran on Saturday announced the formation of a provisional government as the U.S. and Israel launched a massive joint military attack on the Islamic republic regime in Tehran.
The NCRI, an exiled political umbrella organization that has described itself in the past as a “parliament-in-exile,” said it wants to establish a democratic republic in Iran free of the rigid clerical rule that has controlled the country since the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in February 1979.
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said the goal is the overthrow of the ruling regime. She called for “patriotic personnel” in Iran’s military to stand with the people rather than the government in Tehran.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other forces tasked with preserving the regime must lay down their arms and surrender to the people,” Ms. Rajavi said in a statement. “Only the people of Iran possess the legitimacy to determine the political future of their country.”
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late Shah, also called on Iran’s military and security forces to protect Iran and its people, rather than the Islamic republic and its leaders.
“Your duty is to defend the people, not to defend a regime that has taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime,” he said Saturday in a statement. “Join the nation and help ensure a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will sink with [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei’s ship and his crumbling regime.”
Mr. Pahlavi called the U.S.-Israel military operation a “humanitarian intervention,” but said the final victory in Iran will be secured by its people.
“It is we, the people of Iran, who will finish this task in the final battle. The Time to return to the streets is approaching,” he said.
While supporters of NCRI and Mr. Pahlavi both seek the overthrow of the current Iranian government, they have historically refused to cooperate. The Mujahedin-e-Khalq, known as the M.E.K., is the driving force behind the National Council of Resistance of Iran and was a leader of the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah. They have long maintained that the Pahlavi dynasty’s past repression in Iran helped pave the way for the current theocracy.
“As the Iranian people demonstrated during the January uprising, they seek a future based on a democratic republic and reject both the Shah and the mullahs,” Ms. Rajavi said. “Our path leads toward the future and the establishment of a democratic republic, not a return to the buried dictatorship of the past.”
