A protester removes the flag from Iran's embassy in London and replaces it with a pre-Islamic revolution flag, January 10, 2026. (X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Protester replaces Islamic Republic flag with shah-era banner at Iran’s London embassy

British cops say 2 arrested for aggravated trespassing as hundreds rally in UK capital, call for a ‘free Iran’

by · The Times of Israel

A protester briefly replaced the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its London embassy with the former flag, flown before 1979, during a demonstration in the UK capital Saturday.

The demonstration was in support of the mass anti-regime protests that have taken over Iran in recent weeks, as the Islamic Republic has intensified its crackdown on dissent amid a nationwide internet blackout.

A video posted to social media showed a man on the balcony of the embassy, near Hyde Park, replacing the country’s current flag with the one used during the rule of the ousted shah to cheers from hundreds of demonstrators below.

The old tri-colored flag with a lion and sun — used in Iran before the Islamic Revolution — stayed in place for several minutes before being removed, witnesses on site told AFP.

London police, in an online post, said they had arrested two people, “one for aggravated trespass and assault on an emergency worker and one for aggravated trespass” and they were seeking another individual for “trespass.”

Police said that after the flag incident “additional officers are being deployed to prevent any disorder” and to protect the Iranian embassy.

Outside the embassy, hundreds chanted: “Democracy for Iran. Shah Reza Pahlavi. Justice for Iran,” referring to the son of the late shah of Iran who has spurred on the protests from exile in the US. Some also held placards reading “Free Iran.”

“I’m here to support Iranians, my loved ones inside Iran — they’ve been protesting for two weeks today,” said one demonstrator, Taraneh, 33, who declined to give her last name.

Anti-Iranian regime protesters hold up a portrait of the last shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, as they take part in a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in central London on January 10, 2026. (CARLOS JASSO / AFP)

“The internet has been shut down… We get very little information from inside Iran,” she added.

“But, you know, people are still in the streets. They’re being attacked. The Islamic Republic is murdering people,” she said. “I want this regime to go. I just want to be able to go back.”

Since the wave of protests began last month, Iranians in diaspora communities around the world have gathered in front of the country’s embassies abroad, including earlier demonstrations in London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels, as well as outside the White House in Washington DC.

Protesters participate in a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, January 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The lion and sun flag has been seen in several videos coming out of Iran since the protests began, and Pahlavi has taken an outsized role in the movement, and on Saturday called for more nights of demonstrations.

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could have been cause for a death sentence in the past, and now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.

In a Persian-language video statement, Pahlavi appeared to try to escalate the anti-regime efforts, saying: “Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers.” He added that he was “preparing to return to my homeland” on a day he believed was “very near.”