Desperate Iranian mullahs launch army recruitment campaign ‘to defend the country’s soil’ sending out mass text messages after ‘arming 12-year-olds to marshal streets’

Desperate Iranian leaders have launched a nationwide recruitment campaign urging citizens to ‘defend the country’s soil’ as fears of a potential US ground invasion grow.

In recent days, mass messages have been sent across the country inviting people to join the national mobilization campaign.

The messages shared on state television call on Iranians to counter ‘threats from the American-Zionist enemy to Iran’s coasts, islands and borders’, but no further details were given.

The recruitment drive has been strengthened by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has announced a campaign to recruit individuals for a variety of roles, including military service.

Volunteers as young as 12 are invited to join patrols, man security checkpoints, care for the injured, cook meals or provide financial support, the Financial Times reported.

Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that “children in military facilities will be at serious risk of death and injury” and called on Iranian authorities to “cancel the campaign and ban all military and paramilitary forces in Iran from recruiting children under 18.”

The organization stated that this was due to the fact that ‘Iranian authorities are willing to risk the lives of children for extra manpower’, adding that the recruitment of children under the age of 15 is a war crime under international law.

It remains unclear how many people signed up, although an online portal linked to the text message campaign claimed more than five million registrations.

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Since women are not drafted into the military in Iran, it is unknown whether they are eligible to enlist.

Despite widespread discontent with the regime, authorities appear to rely on a loyal minority, including members of the Basij volunteer forces, believed to number in the millions.

But even Iranians who are critical of the government say the threat of foreign invasion could force them to enlist in the military.

A mechanic from western Tehran told the FT: ‘If there is a ground war, I will go to fight. ‘I would rather die defending my homeland than die in bed.’

Others remain skeptical, as one 38-year-old architect says: ‘I don’t want to be used as a chess piece. ‘I would do anything for my country and my citizens, but it is clear that these three powers will eventually come to an agreement, and then I will feel like a fool for being exploited.’

Some citizens say they can only take up arms under certain conditions. “If a land war breaks out in Tehran, I will go to defend my homeland against American and Israeli forces,” said a 35-year-old businessman.

‘But under the current form of warfare I will not volunteer for any branch of this regime. ‘I will never forget January 8th and 9th and how brutally they treated their own people.’

Analysts say the campaign draws on tactics used during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, when millions were mobilized to fight.

Sanam Vakil of Chatham House told the FT that the regime still had a base of supporters, estimating that up to 20 per cent of them were regime supporters.

He added: ‘It will be interesting to see if they can do the recruiting job. ‘They will sell it to test their base, but this is about wartime support rather than permanent or uniform national unity.’

The mobilization effort comes at a time when Iran faces sustained military pressure. While US and Israeli air strikes targeted facilities affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, Basij units, army and police, checkpoints in Tehran were also attacked.

Tasnim news agency quoted a senior military figure as claiming that recruitment demands had increased across the Revolutionary Guard, Basij and the army, and that a combat force of one million men had been mobilised. However, this has not been confirmed.

Rahim Nadali, deputy head of the Guard’s cultural department in Tehran, said last week that Iranians, including “young people”, were volunteering to patrol the streets and guard checkpoints.

Last month, 11-year-old Alireza Jafari was killed in a drone attack while accompanying her father at the Basij checkpoint in Tehran.

The boy’s mother said her husband took her son to an “understaffed” checkpoint “so he could be prepared for the coming days.”

Eyewitnesses said children were already visible on the streets, and a teacher saw children as young as 13 or 14 at checkpoints.

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This comes as the Pentagon prepares for weeks of ground operations in Iran that will potentially involve thousands of US soldiers and sailors.

If the president chooses to escalate the war, special operations forces and conventional infantry units could be deployed.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth refused to tell reporters on Tuesday whether the U.S. military would deploy ground troops against Iran.

‘If you tell your enemy what you want to do or what you don’t want to do, you can’t fight and win the war just to knock the boots out,’ he said.

Hegseth added: ‘Our enemy now thinks there are 15 different ways we can attack them with boots on the ground. And guess what? ‘There is.’

Meanwhile, the President on Monday threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants, oil wells, desalination plants and Kharg Island if the waterway is not opened ‘immediately’.

But he told aides he would be willing to withdraw from the conflict if the strait remained closed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, Trump sought to reassure the United States that the military is close to defeating Iran and vowed to defeat Iran. They bombed the Islamic Republic ‘back to the Stone Age’.

Trump insisted the military operation to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons will not turn into an “endless war” like the US quagmire in Iraq and Vietnam.

“We’re going to hit them extremely hard in the next two to three weeks,” Trump said in a 20-minute speech at the White House.

Trump said that thanks to the power of the US military, Americans no longer fear the threat of ‘nuclear blackmail’ from Tehran.

‘They were the tyrants of the Middle East, but they are not tyrants anymore. ‘This is a real investment in the future of your children and grandchildren.’

He also noted that ‘over the past four weeks our armed forces have achieved swift, decisive and overwhelming victories on the battlefield’.

Trump also appeared to suggest that he had ruled out going to Iran to buy enriched uranium.

‘The nuclear sites we destroyed with B-2 bombers were hit so hard that it would take months to get close to the nuclear dust,’ he said.

‘And we keep it under intense satellite surveillance and control. If we see them making a move, or even making a move for it, we will hit them again with very hard missiles.’

The president encouraged countries dependent on oil through the Strait of Hormuz to ‘gain some long-overdue courage’ and ‘take it.’

Trump is under increasing pressure to end the war, which is driving up the prices of gasoline, food and other goods.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, has risen more than 40% since the start of the war.

Oil rose more than 4 percent and Asian stock markets fell after Trump’s speech.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 4.9 percent to $106.16 per barrel. Benchmark US crude oil increased by 4 percent to $104.15 per barrel.

Trump made no mention of the upcoming deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil and gas transportation, after previously threatening Iran with an attack on US energy infrastructure if the strait was not reopened.

It did not offer a clear path to end the supply disruptions that caused energy prices to rise.