Arab separatism in Khuzestan

In the early 20th century, the growing popularity of Arab nationalism throughout West Asia prompted the emergence of an ongoing separatist movement in Iran's Khuzestan province. It has been marked by periods of general unrest, armed insurgency, rebellions, assassinations, and terrorist attacks. Arabs are a significant ethnic minority in Khuzestan, where they account for 33.6% of the population, as opposed to no more than 4.3% in every other Iranian province. Likewise, the Khuzestani Arabs, who numbered around 1.6 million people in 2010, are the largest community among the Arab citizens of Iran. The movement reemerged during the instability caused by the 2026 Iran war with the group known as the Ahwaz Falcons reemerging alongside a Sunni Arab group known as the Ahwaz Freedom Brigades.

Historically, Khuzestan's land border with Arab-majority Iraq has played a major role in influencing the conflict between the Iranian state and the province's Arab population, particularly when Iraq was ruled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. A decades-long border dispute between Iran and Iraq was the driving factor behind Iraqi support for Arab separatism in Khuzestan and Iranian support for Kurdish separatism in Iraq, though they briefly reneged upon signing the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Four years later, the Iranian Revolution triggered a Khuzestani Arab uprising, which was suppressed by the Iranian military. During the Iran–Iraq War, which began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran in 1980 and continued until 1988, the Arab separatist movement in Khuzestan was highly active and overtly supported by Iraq. The Iranian Embassy siege in the United Kingdom in early 1980 was carried out by Iranian Arab separatists of the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan, which also fought alongside the Iraqi military during the Battle of Khorramshahr later that year.

The Iranian government officially denies any discrimination or the existence of a conflict within the country. However, it has drawn strong criticism from some organizations, such as the International Federation for Human Rights, including accusations of discrimination and ethnic cleansing. In addition to the 1979 uprising, flashpoints of the separatist movement include the 2005 Ahvaz unrest, the 2011 protests, and the 2018 Ahvaz military parade attack.