Media Spotlight: Iranian Regime’s Officials Expose Their Role in Regional Crisis

gaza bombing october 2023 (1)
Written by
Farid Mahoutchi

On October 3, the official Twitter account reflecting the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader’s positions issued a series of 14 consecutive posts. The rhetoric in the post was disseminated not only in English but also in Persian, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic, emphasizing the sender’s assertive stance on the global stage.

Throughout its existence, fraught with terror, the clerical regime has consistently exploited international tensions to divert attention from its domestic challenges. Grappling with an explosive society and a crumbling economy, compounded by dispirited security forces and open dissent from state officials against Khamenei, the regime is facing a critical moment, with even the deteriorating health of a sixteen-year-old girl shaking the foundations of the Supreme Leader’s reign.

Therefore, starting from October 7, Iranian state media and social media channels linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the entity administrating proxy paramilitary forces in the region, have unabashedly showcased the regime’s interests in the ongoing crisis and are triumphantly covering the events hour by hour, minute after minute.

Etemad Online, a state-run website, an outlet affiliated with the so-called “reformists” published its report on October 7 and used the headline “The flames of war between Palestine and Israel intensify as the resistance groups take the initiative.”

The Tasnim news agency also tweeted on October 7, “Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces said: ‘We support Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, and we are certain that the Resistance Front also supports this cause. Undoubtedly, defenders of the shrine and great martyrs like Qassem Soleimani are with these warriors. We will stand with the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.”

The Twitter account associated with the IRGC-run Fars News Agency quoted the representative of Hamas as saying, “Yesterday’s support from the Iranian people is heartening for Palestine.”

In a tweet on October 8, Fars News Agency quoted the regime’s Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Ali Baqeri as saying, “The Al-Aqsa Storm has undoubtedly turned the nightmare of the collapse of the Zionist regime into a certainty for its leaders. Frantic efforts like the ridiculous display of normalization won’t be able to slow down the process of decline and the collapse of the spider’s house.”

On October 8, the semi-official ISNA news agency, tied with the so-called moderate faction, ran a report with the headline “Gaza’s connection to the western coast: A new nightmare for the Zionist regime.”

An unverified Twitter account called Sepah Media, which primarily shares content about the clerical regime’s statements, posted the following sentence: “We told you that we would come for you”.

Openly calling for extortion and hostage-taking, the Tasnim news agency tweeted, “Atvan, an analyst and editor of Raya Al-Youm newspaper said ‘Gaza Resistance Forces have captured over a thousand individuals. This number of Zionist captives suffices to free all Palestinian prisoners from Zionist jails.”

Similar to the media channels associated with the IRGC, Jamaran Online, managed by Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the regime’s founder who has always pretended to hold “reformist” views, shared a video on Twitter endorsing suicide drones. The accompanying message read: “Debut of ‘Al-Zawari’ suicide drone by the Al-Qassam Brigades during ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.’”

On October 10, Hojat Qasemkhani, the Friday Prayer Leader of Khoy, said, “The Palestinian fighters were battling with knives and stones, but today, thanks to the Islamic Revolution, their struggle involves drones and missiles.”

On the same day, the official IRNA news agency quoted IRGC spokesperson Ramezan Sharif as saying that the Hamas operation was carried out ‘to stop the continuation of Israeli crimes,’ and the resistance front had no choice but to design and execute this operation to prevent the continuation of these crimes.”

According to IRNA, “Sharif addressed a meeting of the ‘Uprising and Quds Headquarters’ on Tuesday, with the presence of Naser Abusharif, the representative of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and representatives of the agencies and institutions affiliated with the headquarters, at the central office of the Coordination Council for Islamic Propagation.”

According to the IRGC-run Tasnim News Agency on October 8, SSF Chief Ahmadreza Radan stated, “With following the path of the martyrs, God willing, the axis of resistance will triumph. Surely, the Islamic front will be victorious in this operation. In this unprecedented operation, which took place with the entry of Palestinian fighters into Israeli settlements by land, air, and sea, the Zionist regime suffered a heavy blow both in terms of intelligence and operations.”

The Farhikhtegan newspaper affiliated with Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister in the Iranian regime who is now a senior advisor to Khamenei on international affairs, published a very intriguing article on October 9. The article, titled ‘Lands Are Freed After Minds,’ stated,

“The event that occurred on the morning of October 7 in the occupied southern territories was not an ordinary historical incident; it holds extraordinary significance from this perspective. Perhaps no one can compare the entry of Palestinians into the occupied areas with another historical event. In terms of military and security, the historically impenetrable image of the Zionist regime’s borders collapsed… From this perspective, in order to find a conceptual framework that clearly explains Iran’s national interests in the Palestinian issue, this significant event can be described in three analytical layers.

The Americans aimed to silence all forces who were against the normalization [with Israel] on three levels within the Islamic world: first, the fighters inside Palestine; second, organized resistance groups in neighboring countries like Lebanon; third, social forces opposing Israel’s presence among Muslims. The great operation of Saturday was a powerful blow to the idea of normalization from the perspective of assimilating Palestinian society into the Zionist occupiers. The assumption was based on the idea that when Palestinians accept the existence of Israel, why do we persist pointlessly? The Americans were on the verge of handing over the reins from Arab hands to the poisoned hands of the Zionists, and now the scene has changed. Israel is compelled to remove the facade and return to its essence: “bloody suppression.”
The historical and major blow to the security of the Zionists, in addition to identifying and revealing the anti-Iran movements, weakens the security and executive power of the opposition. Israel was the command center for anti-Iran operations last year and now it feels the danger right at its doorstep. Planning operations to assassinate Iran’s nuclear scientists and sabotage sensitive military facilities, and attempting to establish a security network within Iran, which was clearly used from this network in the autumn of 2022, were carried out in Israel. When the fire fully reaches this operational room, the opposing point to Iran is weakened, and Tehran has the upper hand in security and intelligence. The Zionists and Americans know that what is more important than the operation on October 7 is the display of Israel’s vulnerability as a major warning for the region’s directors. Israel was supposed to protect the countries around the Persian Gulf against Iran, but it lost against Tehran’s weakest tools.
The final point is about the Americans’ primary failure. They thought that by assassinating General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Israel’s security and their own were guaranteed. For example, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State who was one of the planners of the Baghdad Airport operation, wrote in his memoirs: ‘When it comes to authority, intelligence, etc. the Islamic Republic does not have a replacement for Qasem Soleimani.’ This hypothesis collapsed with the operation on October 7.

Weakening the Zionists and shattering the normalization idea is a precious opportunity for Iran from an internal perspective. The heavy confrontation of recent years consumed a lot of Iran’s attention and resources. Now, with the major security blow received by Israel from the south, it should worry about the north and the southwestern coast. Although the release of prisoners in the hands of the resistance forces puts them in a difficult situation for revenge from Gaza, this situation provides Iran with the conditions to focus on its domestic development projects and reconstruction. The Israelis have suffered a devastating blow and are bewildered for a long time. This devastating blow is the beginning of the end for the Zionists. The fundamental condition, however, is the reconstruction of Iran’s social and economic capabilities. The transformation within consolidates the elements of national power, just as Iran has disrupted American calculations in the region, and they are now in turmoil. Now is the time to rebuild internal rifts.”

In an editorial on October 9, as if the newspaper had insider knowledge of all the behind-the-scenes of the attack, the Kayhad daily wrote,

“Israel’s recent defeat is, in some significant ways, more bitter than the 33-day war. Back then, Hezbollah had more room to maneuver, but in Gaza, it’s completely besieged. While Hezbollah took several hostages and the war began, Israel had been preparing for the attack for months and was waiting for an excuse. However, this time, the Israeli army and intelligence services were completely caught off guard. Mossad and Shin Bet, faced a humiliating defeat against the Palestinian resistance’s intelligence unit, an unprecedented setback in the history of intelligence services. Despite having many spies in Gaza, Israel couldn’t get information about the months-long planning of this complex attack.
The Israeli army and defense units like the “Iron Dome,” “David’s Sling,” and “Arrow” were left helpless against the fierce and deadly thunderous attacks. The resistance forces in the besieged Gaza area carried out operations from seven axes, raining down over 5,000 missiles and rockets on the Zionists, even reaching Tel Aviv, turning it into rubble. The significance of this volume of missiles is clear. Hamas and Islamic Jihad surely have an arsenal of missiles and rockets that they have been accumulating for at least a month, and in the first hour of the operation, they unleashed about 5,000 of them in a paralyzing downpour.
This war is a war of wills and the grand play of the giants. Until a few weeks ago, the media portrayed Israel as reaching Iran’s borders in the north, south, and west, normalizing relations with some Gulf countries, and preparing to destabilize Iran with the help of the United States. Netanyahu illustrated the security and stability of Israel through “expanding alliances in the region” at the United Nations using paintings, graphics, and markers. But now, there’s no one to save him from the quagmire; many of those plans have gone down the drain. This event in its essence serves as a warning to those who were trapped in delusions and were paying the price for the Zionist regime.
The Gaza front is just one of several fronts of resistance opened against the Zionists from the south, and if necessary, other fronts will be opened from the east, north, and southwest. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and the resistance in Iraq and Yemen are now in complete coordination. The Secretary-General of Hezbollah said, ‘In the ongoing battle with the Israeli occupiers, we are not impartial, and the resistance fighters in Shabaa farms greeted Gaza in their own way.’ Israel does not have the capacity to start a ground war and a widespread attack on Gaza. Even if they had the capacity, during Sharon’s era, he had to flee Gaza after the invasion and occupation, in the summer of 2005. This is while at that time, the Gaza resistance had only one-tenth of today’s organizational strength and capabilities.
The declarations made by Imam Khomeini, Khamenei, and Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah foreseeing the imminent downfall of Israel have been echoed by Zionist officials in recent times, encapsulated in the phrase ‘Israel’s Entanglement in the Nightmare of Not Seeing 80 Years.’ This echoes a consensus that the “Zionist regime is in decline,” a belief supported by various telltale signs.”
Alongside the clerical regime’s duplicity game and deceitful practices, senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, both supported and funded by Tehran, are openly admitting that the Khamenei-led regime has been helping and planning the recent attacks.

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