Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that Israel was defeated in the recent 12-day conflict because it failed to trigger unrest inside Iran, despite what its spokesman described as expectations that military strikes would lead to domestic turmoil.
Ali Mohammad Naini, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Israel and its allies had pursued a dual strategy during the conflict: direct military confrontation alongside efforts to destabilize Iran from within.
“The enemy’s defeat in the 12-day war was precisely here,” Naini said. “They tried to drag the war inside the country, but that project failed.”
Naini was speaking at a meeting to organize commemorations for December 30, a state-marked anniversary tied to mass rallies that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election and the suppression of the Green Movement protests – one of the largest episodes of unrest in Iran’s recent history.
The Green Movement is often cited alongside the 2019 Bloody November protests and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations as the most significant challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding.
Naini said Iran’s adversaries had assumed that air strikes would be followed by protests, riots or internal collapse, repeating what he described as a long-standing “illusion of chaos” rooted in past episodes of unrest.
“They sat in their war rooms with a wrong calculation, waiting for disorder, riots and the breakdown of the country from within,” he said.
Instead, Naini said the attacks were followed by large public reactions that included anti-Israel rallies and funerals for those killed, which he portrayed as demonstrations of national unity.
He said Israel underestimated what he described as a “fortress-like” popular cohesion and that attempts at what Iranian officials often call soft war or cognitive war aimed at weakening society from within were completely unsuccessful.
“The enemy shifted from military war to cognitive war, using pessimism, division and exaggerating social dissatisfaction to weaken the unity that was formed,” Naini said.
The remarks come as regional tensions remain high and as Israel weighs next steps.
NBC News reported over the weekend that Israeli officials are preparing to brief US President Donald Trump on options for possible new military strikes on Iran, citing concerns that Tehran is rebuilding facilities linked to ballistic missile production and repairing air defenses damaged in earlier attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to raise the issue during an upcoming meeting with Trump, including options for US support or participation in any future action, according to the report.
Trump has repeatedly said US strikes in June destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities and has warned Tehran against trying to rebuild them. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its military and nuclear programs are defensive.
Naini said Iran continues to monitor what he described as hostile plans closely, adding that the lesson Iranian officials draw from both past unrest and the recent war is that internal cohesion remains decisive in confronting external threats.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.
