A key point overlooked in the story about Israeli officials calling the cell phones of senior Iranian generals and urging them to record messages declaring their surrender lest Israel kill them and their wives and children (!) is that none of them appear to have done so.
The calls occurred only two hours into the war, after some of Iran's top generals had been killed. This was the moment in which Iran was in disarray, having been completely taken off guard. It was probably a moment when many of them feared that the regime was actually on the verge of collapse.
About twenty calls similar to the one below were made. The generals were given twelve hours to record surrender videos and send them to Israeli officials, who would then make them public.
Yet, not a single surrender video appears to have been made, despite the threat Israel made about killing the children of the generals. Had they been made, Israel would surely have circulated them to spread panic within the state apparatus and inspire ordinary Iranians to rise against the regime.
This suggests that the resilience of the Iranian system may be stronger than Israel and the US had presumed, particularly since the recordings are from a moment when the regime truly appears to have been in a state of disarray, if not panic.
This may also provide a hint to the Trump administration regarding Tehran's ability to resist pressures to force Iran to surrender its enrichment program.
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