More Stories
A leaked Tasnim memo seen by Iran International shows the IRGC media apparatus sought to manipulate narratives around the protests and crackdown, undermine exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, and frame the uprising as foreign-driven – not rooted in public anger at the Islamic Republic.
The document, issued by the Strategic Center of Tasnim News Agency – an outlet linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), instructs that audiences should be led to view Pahlavi not as a political alternative, but as a Western-backed media instrument. It outlines three main lines of messaging.
First, it denies that Pahlavi has any meaningful social base inside Iran, saying recent protests were not the result of his calls but were planned on the ground by the United States and Israel. His statements, it argues, serve only as media coverage of unrest rather than leadership.
Second, the strategy seeks to separate broad social anger from support for Pahlavi, saying that many protesters were expressing accumulated frustration with the Islamic Republic rather than endorsing his political qualifications. Supportive slogans, it adds, reflect opposition to the system more than approval of Pahlavi himself.
Third, the document focuses on undermining Pahlavi’s political and personal credibility, portraying him as inconsistent, unwilling to take responsibility, lacking courage, and ultimately depicted as a “puppet” rather than a serious political actor.
Commenting on the document, political analyst Rouhollah Rahimpour, a freelance journalist, told Iran International that within the Islamic Republic’s broader media machinery, “nothing is random – neither words, nor terminology, nor narratives, nor timing.”
He described the approach as a classic narrative war designed to separate the public from political alternatives, allow anger to be released without enabling leadership to form, and keep society in a state of resentment.
“They tried to show that Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is not a political actor but a tool,” Rahimpour said.
He added that the strategy also aims to prevent any perceived identity link between protesters inside Iran and Pahlavi, ensuring that “no identity connection is established between protesters inside Iran and Pahlavi.”
Iranian police detained four foreign nationals suspected of involvement in protests earlier this month in Baharestan, west of Tehran, state media reported on Monday.
Police identified and arrested the suspects at their hideout, IRIB quoted a local police official as saying.
“Four foreign nationals were identified and arrested on suspicion of involvement in the unrest,” the official said.
IRIB said police found “four homemade stun grenades” in a bag carried by one of the detainees that were used during the disturbances.
Authorities did not identify the detainees or say where they were from.
Iran and the United States may start talks in the coming days with senior officials from both sides, Guards-linked Tasnim reported on Monday, citing what it described as an informed source.
The source said the time and place of any meeting had not been finalized and that the talks could be held at the level of Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The possibility of the start of negotiations between Iran and the United States in the coming days has been confirmed,” the source was quoted as saying.
A senior Tehran city council official warned on Monday that Iran would respond forcefully to any US attack, using blunt language to describe the scale of retaliation.
Parviz Sarvari, vice chairman of Tehran’s city council, said reports about preparing graves for US soldiers were symbolic.
“If they think they can attack Iran, five thousand graves for American soldiers would not be enough and we would turn the whole country into a graveyard for Americans,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
Sarvari said Iran would strike US bases, ships and any countries that support an attack, adding that Iran’s naval forces would respond if hostilities came from the sea and that ground forces would act if there were a land incursion.
Mehr reported on Saturday that Tehran’s Behesht Zahra cemetery had prepared a site with capacity for several thousand graves for the temporary burial of potential US military casualties.
Iran’s army will hold a military exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday in the western border town of Qasr-e Shirin, local officials said.
The county governor said the drill would take place on Feb. 3 and 4 and warned residents that sounds of explosions would be linked to the exercise.
Qasr-e Shirin lies near Iran’s border with Iraq.
