Tensions in Iran after attack on Israel

The recent events in the Arab region fuelled by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have brought the historical tensions between Iran and Israel out into the open, until now consisting of clashes between Israel and Iranian-funded Shia militias in Syria, Israeli attacks and sabotage in Iran, and exchanges of cyber attacks against strategic infrastructure.

Iran has never sought to contribute to the repercussions of the conflict in the region, nor has it sought to aggravate or spread tension throughout the region, but things seem to have taken a different turn when on the night of 13-14 April, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to attack Israel by launching more than 300 missiles against military targets. Tehran's response to the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April that involved General Mohamed Reza Zahedi, a leading figure in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is intended to show the international community that Israel is not inviolable.

However, it has to be considered that the Islamic Republic of Iran's goal of demonstrating its assertiveness and at the same time giving a signal to the world of the Shia crescent has not been received as hoped by Iranian citizens. The Iranian population is well aware that their country is oppressed by the mullahs, and the Pasdaran, the latter of whom have always been involved in terrorist activities in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, and that the fundamentalists put pressure on the regime to enforce the Islamic ideology, but by failing to adhere to what for decades has been the Iranian doctrine of so-called strategic patience, of not responding to provocation and falling into the traps set by its enemies, Iran has also surprised its people.

The response to the Damascus attack is seen as a detriment to the entire nation, the question now is whether tensions are bound to rise from here on.
The Iranians have already said and continue to repeat: the war - covert or overt - of the Islamic Republic is not our war, do not confuse the authorities, of which the majority of us are victims and not accomplices, and the people. The ayatollahs' regime for over 45 years has indoctrinated the Iranian people in an anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-Western perspective. Primary and secondary school students every day at the entrance are obliged to shout: 'Death to Israel, Death to the USA'. This is the basic ideology of the Sunni community's conquest to dominate the world and allow the return of the last well-guided caliph for the Shia Muslim current, but the new generations are rebelling against this by comparing the Islamic Republic's regime to the terrorist regime of ISIS, or even worse to Hamas.

The regime would like the Iranian population to participate in the mobilisation against Gaza but the reality is that in the Palestinian territory, Iran has more than one face. If the missiles on the Golden Dome were seen as a sign of support on the other, Tehran has a close link of subsidies, training and supplies with the military wing of Hamas.

Iranian activists have appealed to the international community for their protest against the regime to be heard. As early as 2009 with the Green Movement, the population accused the ruling elite of providing resources to Islamist groups that oppress Palestine. Adding to the burden is the economic and infrastructural condition, aggravated by the sanctions, which has led to numerous protests with the slogans 'Neither Gaza nor Lebanon: I will give my life for Iran', 'Abandon Palestine, think of a solution for us'. As well as opponents of the regime, human rights activists have emphasised that the Iranian people distance themselves from the attacks on Israel, a natural continuation of the terrorism that the Islamic Republic has sown inside and outside the country. In fact, in the days following the attack, videos were circulated showing celebrations by protesters, which instead turned out to be a staged propaganda by the regime, making people believe they were against the Jewish state.

In particular, the business class believes that terrorist militants in Tehran and Gaza are doing nothing but consuming Iranian wealth and thus contributing to international isolation. This circle of contributors, including scholars, researchers and academic personalities desire coexistence with the Jewish state and demonstrated this during last March's elections where abstention reached record levels with only 41% turnout.

What drives the Iranian people not to follow the regime in its war is therefore the common situation of oppression. On the very day of the attack on Israel, the morality police introduced a new initiative to enforce the hijab, called the Nour (Light) Plan, with the aim of enforcing hijab laws nationwide. The new initiative is the result of protests by fundamentalists who see the Islamic religion threatened in the country, ideological pressures that are leading the Ayatollahs' regime to show more and more repression towards those who do not share the ideology, while clashing with a people who are no longer afraid.

Translated by Flora Stanziola