Why The Exiled Crown Prince of Iran Is Urging Israel to 'Take Down' The Tyrannical Regime

Amid growing tensions between Israel and Iran, more Iranians are openly calling for the Jewish state to take military action against their own government. 

Citizens frustrated with the brutal regime believe such an attack could help end leadership that has long suppressed their freedom. 

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is urging Iran's Middle East neighbors to stand against Tehran's influence, help support Israel's war efforts, and bring down the dictatorship.

"The regime in Tehran is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents: Iranians, Arabs, and Israelis. Christians, Muslims, and Jews," said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Crown Prince of Iran.

Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah, went on social media saying most Iranians want to see their own oppressive government removed.

"So I say to you, our friends across the Middle East: our region deserves so much better. But to succeed, first this regime, that has held us hostage for nearly half a century, must go," Pahlavi said in a message posted on YouTube.

While some Iranians have supported military action against Israel, Pahlavi claims most of his countrymen would welcome targeted action against the regime. 

He tells Iranians the real enemy is their own government, led by Ali Khamenei.

"The tyrant in Tehran couches his warmongering in Iranian nationalism. But he does not speak for our nation," Pahlavi claimed. "The crimes his regime has committed against you, our neighbors, are an affront to Iranians and our values."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently expressed hope for peace between his country and Iran, suggesting that a future free Iran could lead to a new relationship between the two nations.

"When Iran is finally free and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different," Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said in a video address to the Iranian people. "Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people, and the Persian people, will finally be at peace. Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will be at peace."

Lana Silk runs Transform Iran, a ministry that operates inside the country sharing the message of the Gospel. 

She says recent uprisings against the regime demonstrate that Iranians want political change like never before, even to the point of dying for it.

"It's a tough fight, but they are willing to fight it, they are willing to pay whatever it takes to take down their government," Silk told CBN News. "We've seen Iranian people take to social media inviting Israel to attack them on their own soil."

Videos from Iran showed people singing and dancing following Hassan Nasrallah's assassination. 

Silk adds that most Iranians do not share the government's animosity toward Israel. 

Since taking power 45 years ago, the regime's clerics have labeled the United States as the 'Great Satan' and Israel as the 'Little Satan."

"I was brought up in the country and I was conditioned to hate Israel and America," Silk recalled. "As a schoolgirl, we had to wake up every morning and chant, 'Death to America, death to Israel'. All our teaching, our education, all the propaganda, in the news, on the walls, everything was set up for us to hate these two countries, and yet we don't. No matter how hard the government tries, they cannot turn their people against these countries."

During an interview with CBN News, Pahlavi said despite Iran's ongoing violations of religious freedom, people are turning to faith—especially Christianity—like never before.

"The discrimination started against religious minorities. The Jews were the first, followed by the Bahais," Pahlavi told CBN News. "Lately it's been mostly the Christians that are targeted. Iran has probably right now the fastest-growing faith in Christianity than any other faith that the country has had. We have hundreds of underground churches."

Silk says that the potential for war is driving a sense of urgency among underground Christians in Iran to share their faith.

"We are talking about war, we are talking about unimaginable suffering coming to Iran so there is a sense of we better be quick to make sure that all the people we love know who Jesus is and what He has done for them before it's too late for them," Silk added.