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.