The Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) has endorsed targeted attacks on government officials in Iran in the wake of the launch of a joint U.S. and Israel military operation against the country’s hardline Islamic Republic regime on Saturday.
The dissident film body said in a statement that Iran’s “defenseless citizens” had had “no option but to seek urgent humanitarian intervention from the international community” in the wake of their government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in January.
As many as 30,000 people are believed to have been killed by officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who fired indiscriminately into crowds as they sought to disband pro-democracy demonstrations on January 8 and 9.
“For decades this regime has squandered national wealth on nuclear and military infrastructure while imposing harsh sanctions that have devastated the populace,” said IIFMA, which was created by exiled Iranian cinema professionals in the wake of the 2022 Woman Life Freedom movement, sparked by the killing of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
“Its recent cowardly attacks on neighboring countries reveal its weakening grasp on power,” it added, referring to retaliatory Iranian missile attacks on Saturday on a number of Gulf states including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
“In this context, IIFMA calls upon the international community to uphold Iran’s sovereignty and to prioritize the protection of tens of millions of citizens held hostage by the Islamic regime. We advocate for targeted actions against government officials and oppressive agents while avoiding harm to innocent civilians. It is essential to put an end to this archaic cycle of patriarchal violence.”
The body also raised its concern “for the lives of all prisoners, especially those involved in the ongoing Revolution”.
“We are alarmed by the regime’s deceitful tactics, which may lead to a repeat of the Cinema Rex tragedy, where blame for civilian deaths is shifted onto foreign actors,” it said.
The infamous Cinema Rex arson attack in the city of Abadan in southwest Iran in August 1978, in which Islamic extremists barred the doors of the theater and set it alight, killing between 377 to 470 people, is seen as a trigger for the Iranian Revolution of 1979 in which the Islamic Regime come to power.
It has since been proved it was the work of a quartet of Islamic revolutionaries, but claims at the time that it was a false flag operation orchestrated by the SAVAK secret police agents of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, turned public opinion and helped fuel the revolution.
IIFMA’s statement was released towards the end of a fast-moving day in which the U.S. and Israel launched hundreds of missiles on strategic sites across Iran, following a pre-recorded video message from Trump that the operation was aimed at stopping the country’s nuclear campaign and bringing about regime change.
Later in the day, Trump confirmed reports out of Israel that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed after his Tehran compound was pounded by at least 30 strikes, although Iranian officials have denied his death.
The surprise military operation has provoked a mixed response with anger in some quarters at home in the U.S. over the fact Trump launched the operation without consulting Congress, and concern worldwide that the situation could escalate out of control and wreak death and destruction across the Middle East.
“In these challenging times, it is only through united resistance against theocracy that we can hope to end violence and forge a path toward lasting peace and freedom. True peace is not merely the absence of conflict; it is built upon the foundation of genuine liberty and dignity for all,” said IIFMA.