‘They’ll get killed’: Trump shot down Netanyahu’s proposal to call Iranians to the streets – report
Washington and Jerusalem were reportedly disappointed with turnout for Fire Festival last week
U.S. President Donald Trump opposed the idea of calling on Iranians to confront the regime on the streets last week, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocating for it, the news outlet Axios reported.
Both leaders have mentioned the toppling of the regime by the people as one of the goals of the ongoing military campaign, though both have also called on Iranians to stay indoors while the strikes against the regime continue.
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has said that a “final” call to the people to attack the regime would “be issued at the right moment.”
However, Axios cited two U.S. officials and an Israeli source who said that Netanyahu thought this moment had come last week, and asked Trump to back his call to the people.
“Why the hell should we tell people to take to the streets when they'll just get mowed down,” Trump replied to Netanyahu during a phone call, according to a U.S. official briefed on the conversation.
According to a Washington Post report, Israeli officials also estimated that protesters would “get slaughtered” by regime troops because the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) still “has the upper hand.”
🚨 WATCH: Video circulating online appears to show pro-regime demonstrators and Basij paramilitary personnel gathering inside Tehran’s tunnel networks, reduce exposure to potential Israeli UAV surveillance and strikes.
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) March 25, 2026
The use of underground infrastructure for movement,… pic.twitter.com/gZUkeEVSOx
However, the Israeli Air Force has been focusing its strikes on Basij militia targets for over a week, including the assassination of its leader, Gholamreza Soleimani. Basij troops are the regime’s main tool for cracking down on protesters, and led the slaughter of some 30,000 Iranians in January.
Israeli officials told Axios that Soleimani’s killing was meant to advance the process of “creating conditions” for an uprising, which, as Netanyahu has repeated several times, is among Israel’s main war goals.
According to the report, Netanyahu said that the regime was in disarray after Soleimani’s assassination and proposed to use this window of opportunity to destabilize its control with a coordinated public call for large-scale protests.
🇮🇷 BREAKING: IRANIANS TAKE TO STREETS
— Tousi TV (@TousiTVOfficial) March 17, 2026
Islamic occupation forces banned gatherings, dancing, and singing.
IDF started taking out the IRGC Basij checkpoints.
Iranians respond by coming out to celebrate the Fire Festival in the run up to Persian New Year this weekend. pic.twitter.com/kprUgmn2Gb
Eventually, the two leaders reportedly agreed to wait and observe the turnout for the annual Festival of Fire the following day to gauge the Iranian public’s readiness.
“Our aircraft are hitting the terror operatives on the ground, in the crossroads, in the city squares. This is meant to enable the brave people of Iran to celebrate the Festival of Fire. So celebrate, and Happy Nowruz. We're watching from above,” Netanyahu said in a public statement.
While some media reports indicated that some Iranians did go out into the street to celebrate, there was no massive, widespread response that could indicate broad readiness to confront the deadly regime forces again.
Speaking to CNN later that week, Israel's ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, stressed that the ground troops that would be involved in the war would have to be “Iranian boots.”
“I think that we need boots on the ground but they've got to be Iranian boots, and I think they're coming … if we degrade [the regime] enough, the people of Iran are going to say ‘we've had enough, and we want a different regime.'”
These were Basij headquarters in Tehran.
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) March 25, 2026
Until Israel found them.
Now they're rubble. pic.twitter.com/j4NXRlum6M
“What we have to focus on now, is degrading to the point where they have no power left in this regime. Hopefully, that will trigger this combustion point where the people are able to take charge of their own lives,” Leiter said.
In an interview with ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Leiter pointed out that regimes have collapsed surprisingly in the past.
“Who could have imagined that the Soviet Union would collapse as it did? Or that in Romania, the people of Romania would suddenly, in one fell swoop, turn their guns around against Ceaușescu? So, regimes do collapse,” he said.
“And remember that in Iran, we're not talking about a country like Iraq or Afghanistan, okay?, which was very, very divided and didn't have a large segment of the population that was pro-West.”
“In Iran, you have 80% of the population, which is very pro-West. And 80% of the country opposes this regime,” he noted, “and 80% of 92 million people is a lot of people.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
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