On the second anniversary of Qassem Soleimani’s killing, many Iranian officials spoke about extracting ‘cold-blooded’ revenge. In coordinated propaganda, they advertised and introduced Soleimani as a national hero and the only man that confronted terrorism in the Middle East and eliminated them.
Officials’ expressions included: “We will take such revenge that you have never witnessed it in your life.” Or “We will squeeze the throat of the enemy at the proper time.” Or “We will avenge Qassem Soleimani’s murder. We will not determine any time or place.”
The most ridiculous claim came from the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, while mispronouncing the word strategic as a strategist he said:
“The then president of the United States, who ordered the assassination of Martyr Soleimani, must be tried and face retaliation, and God’s judgment must be carried out on him. If the mechanism for the trial of Trump, Pompeo, and others in court is provided and they are punished, so be it, or else revenge will come out of the nation’s sleeve.”
In a strange expression, the state-run daily Javan on January 4, called these positions of the regime’s officials the “Maximum acceleration equation.”
“Iran has the ‘maximum acceleration equation’ on the agenda in all areas, in the face of the approach and policy of negotiation and maximum pressure. This maximum acceleration is not limited to legal steps in the nuclear program and includes regional dimensions, eastward diplomacy, revitalization of the national and international economy, scientific and military capabilities, and other areas.”
The question is why is the regime taking such a position? What is it showing its fear by carrying out such propaganda about a man that is hated by the people and is very infamous because of his crimes and terrorism in the Middle East over the past years? With this smokescreen which reality does the regime try to hide?
To explain this issue, three parameters must be considered:
- People’s protests and uprisings are lurking behind the regime. Society is in a critical situation and every moment it could explode. This subject is so serious that Raisi was forced to call the regime’s officials of unification for the “preservation of the system” while referring to Soleimani’s testament he said:
“The testament of Qassem Soleimani says that today the preservation of this system in the name of the Islamic Republic if this tent stays, all the shrines are safe. If this shrine suffers the slightest damage, you should know that other shrines are also in danger, so try to keep this Islamic system.”
- The regime’s deadlock in the Vienna nuclear talks and complying with the demands of the counterparts to get rid of some of the crippling sanctions or to face the consequences by disobeying them. In this regard, the state-run daily Mostaghel on December 4 wrote:
“Based on the evidence, it seems that Iran’s motives and goals for the nuclear negotiations at this stage of the negotiations have changed in a way that under its influence a clear vision for the success of the negotiations cannot be imagined. It seems that the Iranian authorities now find themselves in a situation where negotiations will increase the risk of losing assets as usual.”
- The decline of the position of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei within the ruling factions and the increase in the spirit losses of the regime’s forces. Other positions and practices of the regime in this period can also be analyzed in this context, such as launching a missile maneuver to destroy hypothetical targets or forcing Ismail Haniyeh, Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, to admit that he received 70 million from the regime to build missile power, etc.
None of this propaganda will be able to save the regime, but it is like playing with fire, observers say. Praising the dead Soleimani and speaking about “hard revenge” will not intimidate dissatisfied people, nor will it affect the fate of the nuclear talks.
