Iran holds ‘victory celebration’ despite lopsided loss to Israel

The Islamic Republic held a “victory celebration” in Tehran on Tuesday following a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran which went into effect earlier in the day.

“People of Tehran convened at Tehran’s Enghelab [Revolution] Square on Tuesday to thank the armed forces of the country in giving a crushing response to the Israeli and U.S. aggression against the country,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

Participants chanted slogans, held up images of Ayatollah Ali Khameni and “recent martyrs,” and expressed support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Basij militia.

The triumphal gathering was held despite the regime’s humiliation at the hands of Israel, which conducted a 12-day bombing campaign that ground down Iran’s atomic and ballistic missile programs and eliminated its top army commanders and nuclear scientists.

Over the course of the conflict, the Iranian regime launched hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israeli population centers, killing 28, wounding dozens, displacing thousands and causing widespread property damage.

Iran’s state media, PressTV, reported on June 24 that “Operation True Promise III” (the name given to its retaliatory strike against Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion”), “forced the Israeli regime to halt its aggression unilaterally.”

Quoting a statement from the Secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), it said the enemy had been defeated by “the steadfastness and stunning power of the warriors of Islam,” and described the outcome as a “divine gift.”

Iran’s state-owned Channel 3 on June 24 aired a Lego-style animation showing Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conspiring with the devil, followed by the Isfahan nuclear site in flames, and an Iranian retaliatory missile strike that sent Israelis running for their lives as Muslim countries celebrated.

On June 23, Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, senior advisor to the IRGC commander-in-chief, told Iran’s Channel 3 that the United States had joined the war because “we were very close to annihilating Israel. It was in the closing stages.”

A female anchor then said of the Israelis, “Now they are fleeing in boats.”

Jabbari replied: “They fail to intercept even a single missile of ours.”

(Israel has reported an interception success rate of “more than 90%" for Iranian missiles and drones.)

On June 17, Lt.-Col. Iman Tajik, spokesman for “Operation True Promise III,” claimed in an address on IRINN TV that Iran had obtained “complete control of the skies of the occupied territories,” meaning the Jewish state.

Israel established aerial superiority over the Iranian capital within four days, according to the IDF.

Also on June 17, Iranian political analyst Emad Abshenas told Sky News Arabia (UAE) that Iranians weren’t fleeing Tehran (video of cars streaming out of the city were posted on social media), but rather had been given a week off from work and school and were staying at summer resorts.

Other examples of Iranian propaganda are available on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which translates Arabic and Farsi news reports.