Defection and desertion of Iranian security forces occurred before and during the 2026 Iran war. During the 2025-2026 Iranian protests, thousands of Iranian military personnel had reportedly expressed interest in defecting, dozens of security personnel refused to open fire on civilians and several diplomats requested asylum from European countries. During the 2026 Iran war, United States President Donald Trump publicly called on Iranian military personnel and officials to surrender or face "certain death". Following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the deaths of senior commanders on 28 February 2026, officers reportedly abandoning their positions, prison guards deserted their posts, and an Iranian naval crew surrendered to Sri Lankan authorities.
Reports of defection from the Islamic Republic security forces began to surface before the 2026 Iran war. On 15 July 2025, it was reported that over 20,000 members of the Iranian military had expressed interest in defecting on a digital registration platform connected with office of Prince Reza Pahlavi. [1]
In November 2025, an Iranian Air-Force colonel, Ebrahim Aghaei Kamazani, delivered a speech in defiance of the Islamic Republic, calling it "the enemy", stating that it "has done nothing but create poverty, vice, and Iran's destruction" and calling the people to rise up against the regime. [2] Additionally a report in Jamaran news told of two men dressed in army air defense uniforms who held up a lion and sun flag in a Tehran metro station. [2] According to the report the two were arrested but no details of their identity or arrest were disclosed. [2]
During the 2025–2026 Iranian protests, the Islamic republic reportedly arrested "dozens" of members of the Iranian Security forces who refused to open fire on protesters, and the US Department of State stated that one of them was sentenced to death. [3] The Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps admitted that it was "dealing with possible acts of abandonment". [3] Additionally, it was reported that a number of Iranian diplomats had applied for asylum from European countries due to the unrest. [4] Among these were Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, a senior official at Iran's permanent mission to the UN and Gholam-Reza Derikvand, [4] chargé d'affaires of the Iranian embassy in Vienna, who applied for asylum in Switzerland. [5]
During the 2025–2026 events in Iran US President Donald Trump repeatedly urged members of the Islamic Republic security forces to lay down their weapons in exchange for immunity, or face "certain death". [6] [7] On 5 March 2026, he reportedly said: "I’m once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military, and the police to lay down their arms," adding that "now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country," as well as "You'll be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you'll face absolutely guaranteed death". [7] President Trump also called upon Iranian diplomats stationed abroad to seek asylum in their host countries and help shape a better future for Iran. [7]
After the assassination of Ali Khamenei and dozens of military commanders on 28 February 2026, it was reported that multiple officers fled their posts and abandoned their barracks. [8] Some reports stated that the flight of the officers was caused by division and confusion within the command structure of the security forces in the Islamic Republic, while others stated that it was out of fear of being targeted. [8] The abandonment forced conscripts to remain on guard duty while being exposed to the airstrikes, and out of fear of the bombardments, soldiers spent nights in open areas outside their bases. [8] According to the Telegraph, Lindsay and Craig Foreman, jailed in Tehran on fraudulent charges of espionage during a round-the-world road trip, said that Evin prison, where they were being held, was abandoned by its guards on the day Khamenei was killed. [9] Iran International reported that several Human Rights organizations, such as the Committee for the Freedom of Political Prisoners, stated that the prison officials had abandoned their posts, suspended food distribution, closed the prison shop (which also provided food and drinking water to the inmates) and locked the cell-doors, further confining the prisoners. [10] Control of the prison was then seized by the NOPO unit, "notorious for killing unarmed women and children with heavy machine guns" during protests, and "responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran". [9] [11] [12]
On 4 March 2026, after the Iranian ship Dena was sunk by a US submarine of the coast of Sri Lanka, an additional Iranian naval ship in the area, Bushehr, sent out an urgent distress call to Sri Lankan authorities seeking refuge and requesting permission to dock in the port of Columbo, claiming that one of its engines was damaged. [13] [14] After deliberation and negotiations with the Iranian Foreign Ministry, [15] the Sri Lankan government agreed to take the ship and its crew into its custody. [16] On 5 March the entire crew of Bushehr, consisting of 208 officers, officer cadets, and sailors, surrendered to the Sri Lankan government. [14] [17] According to one report, Bushehr is to be detained in Sri Lanka for the remainder of the 2026 Iran war. [13]
In early March 2026, a taxi driver reported he had picked up a Basij commander. During the ride he tossed his phone out the car window, and into a bombed building. The commander explained to the driver that many other Basij operatives were doing the same, so that the regime would find their phones and assume they had been killed. Iranian strategist Maneli Mirkhan, founder of Dorna, described the incident to The Algemeiner as evidence of "defection and collapse" within the regime's forces. [18]
Le Monde reported a situation where an intelligence service employee told his wife to call to the police, accusing his neighbor of espionage. However, nobody from the police answered the phone. [18] [19]