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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared on Tuesday that more than 14 million Iranians have volunteered to "sacrifice their lives in defense of the country."
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general urged parents to send their children to man military checkpoints at night, moves that human rights groups have described as war crimes.
Pezeshkian announced the figure in a post on X.
"Over 14 million proud Iranians have, up to this moment, declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives in defense of Iran. I too have been, am, and will be a sacrificer for Iran," Pezeshkian wrote.
Iranian state television also claimed Tuesday that 14 million people had volunteered to fight if the U.S. and Israel carry out a ground invasion. The claim included no other supporting information.
Iran is home to some 90 million people.
The figure doubles a claim made April 2 by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who wrote on X that "a powerful national campaign sweeping the country has brought forward around 7 million Iranians who have already stepped up and declared they're ready to pick up arms and stand in defense of our nation."
Ghalibaf added, "You come for our home... you're gonna meet the whole family. Locked, loaded, and standing tall. Bring it on."
Gen. Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the all-volunteer Basij force, made an appeal on Iranian state television that drew immediate international attention.
"Moms, dads, take your kids hands and go out on streets," Yekta said.
"Do you want your kid to become a real man? Let him feel like a hero standing right at the heart of the battlefield. Moms, dads, at night send your kids to man checkpoints. They become men!," he said.
Basij checkpoints have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes. The Basij has been accepting children as young as 12 to man them, and Amnesty International has warned that some even carry firearms, calling their recruitment a war crime.
State media and text message campaigns have urged people to volunteer.
The government has also called on retired soldiers to express their interest in fighting, while the Basij has begun accepting children as young as 12 into its ranks.
The recruitment push echoes a historical precedent: after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini called for a 20-million-strong Basij force.
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