Iran uses ceasefire to mobilize human shields, experts say
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Just hours before a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran’s religious regime that calls for a two-week cessation of hostilities took effect Tuesday, the regime called on young children and adults to surround Iran’s energy facilities as human shields in response to President Trump’s threat to destroy energy infrastructure.
According to observers, the idea behind the Iranian regime’s desire to use children and civilians as cannon fodder is that an American airstrike that kills children or civilians would dramatically turn US public opinion against the war and have the effect of rallying around the regime in Tehran.
And now, with high-level peace talks between the US and Iran set to begin in Pakistan, Tehran can be seen as the kingpin of propaganda when it comes to manipulating much of the world’s media; In fact, it is even more capable than the terrorist apprentice forces in Gaza and Lebanon. Yemen and beyond.
IN TEHRAN AFTER STRIKE: IRANIAN WOMAN TOLD ABOUT FEAR, CHECKPOINTS AND PEOPLE USED AS ‘HUMAN SHIELD’
A billboard depicting the portrait of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli attacks, appears over an empty square in Tehran, Iran, on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)
“Godfather of propaganda”
Lisa Daftari, Speaking to Fox News Digital, an Iranian expert said that the theocratic state’s exploitation of civilians for war purposes is part of its nearly half-century-old tactics against the West. “The Islamic Republic is the kingpin of propaganda. It has spent 47 years perfecting the art of saying one thing at the negotiating table and doing another on the ground. The Trump administration should enter these talks with maximum skepticism. This regime has never kept its word on its weapons, and there is no reason to believe this time is any different.”
He noted Tehran’s “record of positioning civilian infrastructure (hospitals, mosques, schools, and now power plants) as a military shield. They did it in Lebanon through Hezbollah. In Gaza, they did it through Hamas. And now they are doing it on their own soil, with their own people, under duress. Iranians who refuse to participate will face consequences.”
Foreign Affairs Desk Editor-in-Chief Daftari added: “The Iranian regime has never hesitated to use its own people as a shield. The difference now is that they do it in front of cameras, in real time, and they know exactly which images will make it into prime time news around the world. This is propaganda. And the two-week ceasefire has given them more time to manipulate the West and continue their narrative war.”
Security forces monitor the crowd during the funeral ceremony for Iranian Revolutionary Guard Marine Commander Alireza Tangsiri, along with other senior naval commanders and their families killed in US-Israeli strikes in Tehran, Iran, on April 1, 2026. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Taking advantage of a tragedy
Right at the beginning of “Operation Epic Rage”, the world media was full of reports from Iran regarding the airstrike that reportedly hit a girls’ school in the Iranian town of Minab on February 28. According to the regime, it was reported that 175 people, mostly children, died in the airstrike at Shajarah Tayyebeh primary school. The school was located on the same street as the buildings used by the Revolutionary Guards. A Pentagon investigation was launched in March to investigate allegations that a US missile hit the school.
Speaking to Fox News Digital last month, Iranian American journalist Banafsheh Zand, who follows the news, pointed out that the school has been there for more than 10 years and that its connection with the Iranian army has been reported. The regime claimed between 168 and 180 deaths, mostly girls aged 7 to 12 and school teachers and parents, but said the reported casualty figures had not been independently verified.
TRUMP’S ceasefire in Iran was shaken within hours after missile and drone strikes were reported
“There is no confirmation of the number of people arriving from anyone other than regime sources,” he said. “Some people in the area said there were 65 boys. 65 boys? What are 65 boys doing in a girls’ school at 10.30am on a Saturday morning?”
Both Democratic and Republican US administrations have classified the Iranian regime as a leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Iranian worshipers raise their hands as a sign of unity with former Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an anti-Israel rally to condemn Israeli attacks on Iran in downtown Tehran, Iran, on June 20, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
deceiving the media
Speaking on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime’ on Thursday, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said the American media is “essentially pouring water on Iran.”
“The regime wants to show the Iranian people that it is not weakened, despite all the deaths in its leadership and the losses in its arsenals, and to claim legitimacy by showing that it has won against its eternal enemies of America and Israel,” Jonathan Ruhe, a JINSA researcher, told Fox News Digital.
He said: “Like Hezbollah and Hamas, Iran uses civilians as human shields for propaganda purposes. It does not care about the safety and fate of its own people. It wants to portray the country as fearless and willing to sacrifice for victory. And if civilians are killed, it would be better for the regime’s political goals… Iran wants to undermine US domestic support for the war by framing the war as America doing Israel’s orders and using AI-generated disinformation to portray massive destruction and casualties.” “At US bases in the Middle East.”
The regime suffered a crisis of legitimacy in January after millions of Iranians took to the streets and demanded the dissolution of the Islamic Republic.
Both the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij, the regime’s street-fighting paramilitary units, played key roles in the mass murder of 45,000 Iranian civilians protesting the regime in January. In his address to the nation, President Trump said the regime had killed 45,000 people. The previous death toll was estimated at more than 35,000.
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on January 9, 2026. (MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
Ruhe said, “Just like before the war, it wants to delegitimize protesters and other domestic opposition by portraying them as American and Israeli agents. It can be expected to increase all these propaganda efforts during the ceasefire. The United States and our partners will also be part of this target audience.”
Using children in war
In addition to its deadly mix of propaganda, the regime also freely uses child soldiers to achieve its goals. Accordingly Amnesty International“Eyewitness accounts and verified audiovisual evidence indicate that child soldiers were armed with weapons, including AK47 model rifles, at IRGC checkpoints and patrols.”
Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director of Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, said in her report: “Iranian authorities are shamelessly encouraging children as young as 12 to join a military operation led by the Revolutionary Guard, placing them in grave danger and violating international law prohibiting the recruitment and use of children into the military. Recruiting children under 15 into the armed forces constitutes a war crime.”
Iranian students wear Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military uniforms and chant anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans during a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, southern Iran, on February 1, 2026. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Retired U.S. Naval Intelligence Commander Jennifer Dyer told Fox News: “I would say the rest of the regime cannot muster enough human shields to do this everywhere. The people are very resilient. Protests have continued in the country for the last few days, and some reports on social media have indicated that the Basij cracked down on protesters after the so-called ceasefire was declared.”
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
In late March, Rahim Nadali, the Greater Tehran Deputy of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammed Rasulullah Corps, announced that the state was launching a recruitment campaign called “Warriors Defending the Homeland for Iran” that was “open to volunteers” ages 12 and up. The child soldier recruitment campaign was carried out in mosques and bases of the paramilitary organization Basij. The recruitment campaign aimed to get adolescents to join the “warriors defending the homeland.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Iran’s UN Mission in New York for comment.
