Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi on Tuesday issued his first public call for protests since the latest nationwide uprising began, urging coordinated chanting on Thursday evening, hours after Kurdish opposition parties separately called for a general strike that day.
In a video message addressed to Iranian people, Pahlavi said he had closely followed demonstrations over the past week, singling out protests in Tehran’s bazaars as a sign of growing resistance despite what he described as the Islamic Republic's violent crackdown.
He said repeated large-scale gatherings had forced security forces to retreat in some cases and led to what he described as increased defections.
Calling discipline and mass participation “critical,” Pahlavi urged Iranians to chant simultaneously at exactly 8:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9, whether in the streets or from inside their homes.
Separately, seven Iranian Kurdish opposition parties issued a joint statement urging a general strike on Thursday in support of nationwide protests and in condemnation of what they described as the Islamic Republic's actions in the Kurdish-majority provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam as well as Lorestan.
The statement denounced the crackdown on demonstrations and the detention of protesters as a long-standing policy of the Islamic Republic and called on political parties and civil organizations across the country to take a “united and collective stance” by joining the strike.
The call was signed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), Komala, Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran, Revolutionary Komala of Toilers of Iranian Kurdistan, and the Kurdistan Organization of Khabat.
Thursday now appears set to become a focal point for coordinated protest and labor action across Iran.
