Iranian exile group forms provisional government as U.S.-Israeli military operation continues

By Mike Glenn – The Washington Times – Saturday, February 28, 2026

The National Council of Resistance of Iran on Saturday announced the formation of a provisional government as the U.S. and Israel launched a massive joint military attack on the Islamic republic regime in Tehran.

The NCRI, an exiled political umbrella organization that has described itself in the past as a “parliament-in-exile,” said it wants to establish a democratic republic in Iran free of the rigid clerical rule that has controlled the country since the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in February 1979.

NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said the goal is the overthrow of the ruling regime. She called for “patriotic personnel” in Iran’s military to stand with the people rather than the government in Tehran.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other forces tasked with preserving the regime must lay down their arms and surrender to the people,” Ms. Rajavi said in a statement. “Only the people of Iran possess the legitimacy to determine the political future of their country.”

“As the Iranian people demonstrated during the January uprising, they seek a future based on a democratic republic and reject both the Shah and the mullahs,” Ms. Rajavi said. “Our path leads toward the future and the establishment of a democratic republic, not a return to the buried dictatorship of the past.”

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