BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, April 19, 2024, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
Following last weekend’s IRGC strike on Israel, which was ordered by Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime—already weakened by endemic economic instability and internal disarray—is showing signs of heightened anxiety.
Tehran is cracking down on dissent and criticism challenging the official narrative of the attack and its disastrous outcome. The regime’s officials hastily promote aggressive and often contradictory rhetoric in public. Beneath the verbal bluster, however, the fear of the regime’s inherent weakness being exposed is evident.
One aspect of the regime’s propaganda has been the widespread dissemination of false information about the attack aimed primarily at boosting the very low morale among its dwindling support base. This ploy has completely backfired.
In the initial hours following the attack, fabricated videos and images circulated on state-controlled media accounts. For instance, the regime claimed evidence of missile strikes using an old video of a fire in Chile. Another fake video claimed Palestinians were celebrating at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which in reality was footage from a Ramadan event and was posted on TikTok on April 4th. Another fabricated video was actually of Ukrainian missiles hitting a Russian ship in southern Ukraine on March 23rd.
With this attack last week, as forewarned by the Iranian Resistance, the “head of the snake” of war and terrorism that lies in Tehran finally came out of the shadows and opted for more war. This must stop, and the Iranian people are the solution.
As the NCRI President-elect told a U.S. House briefing on April 16, “Today, the clerical regime is confronted with the most significant and fundamental threat to its existence, which is the determination of the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the regime, alongside the presence of an organized resistance capable of leading this struggle to victory.”