In the heart of The Hague, Dutch-Iranians took to the streets not in mourning, but in outright jubilation following devastating U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that targeted Iran’s terrorist regime—including the confirmed killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top mullahs.
A raw RTL Nieuws video report captures the unfiltered emotion: exiles and Iranian-Dutch citizens gathering to cheer the blows against the Islamic Republic. One woman recounts being woken by a friend with the news:
“They are bombing the government, the terrorist government.”
Despite the war raging in their homeland, she explains the overwhelming relief: “Our regime is so terrible that we are happy with the war, because our own regime is ten times as terrible as war, really.”
The sentiment is stark and hard for many in the West to grasp. Another participant puts it plainly: “I think that it is difficult for many people to follow what Iranians have really felt in the last few weeks, and for sure, the last two months.
And I can also turn it around, I think if you can be happy when your country is attacked, and yet, experience a feeling of relief and hope, I think that says enough.”
These aren’t isolated reactions. Similar scenes erupted across Europe, North America, and even pockets inside Iran—waves of hope amid the chaos. Protesters waved pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flags, symbols of a free Iran before the 1979 Islamist takeover. Many voiced support for exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and called for the people to seize this moment for liberation.
The RTL piece,”Iranians in The Hague: ‘The regime is so bad that we are happy with war’”) lays bare the depth of despair under the ayatollahs: decades of brutal suppression, economic ruin, executions, and exported terrorism have left many Iranians viewing external strikes not as tragedy, but as the first real crack in an unbreakable prison.
While global media frets over escalation and Iranian state media vows revenge, these diaspora voices reveal a painful truth—the regime’s own people see its downfall as deliverance.
Watch the subtitled RTL video for the raw, emotional testimony straight from the streets of The Hague. It speaks louder than any headline: for millions oppressed by the mullahs, this war brings not fear, but a long-denied glimmer of freedom.
