Iran International
Iranian officials and media outlets say Tehran's missile strike on Israel in response to attacks on Beirut has established a new red line: future attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon could trigger direct Iranian retaliation.
The debate emerged after Iran launched missiles at Israel following Israeli strikes in Beirut's southern suburbs, at a time when negotiations between Tehran and Washington were widely described as nearing an agreement.
Although Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters announced on Monday that it was halting further strikes, it warned that attacks would resume if Israel targeted either Iran or Lebanon again.
US President Donald Trump called on both sides to halt retaliatory attacks, while Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Washington bore "direct responsibility" for any action taken by Israel against Iran.
Speaking to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)-linked Tasnim News Agency, an unnamed military source dismissed Washington's lack of public endorsement for Israeli attacks as a "purely propagandistic and deceptive act."
"If the Israelis and Americans believe they can, through 'controlled escalation,' make Iran and the Resistance Front predictable or limit the nature of Iran's response, they are making a foolish mistake," he said.
Among the most notable reactions came from Sadegh Larijani, chairman of Iran's Expediency Council.
In a post on X, Larijani described the strike carried out in defense of Lebanon as "the official declaration of a strategic doctrine" and the opening of "a new chapter in defense policy," in which Iran would pursue its regional power through initiative and offensive capability.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who also heads Iran's negotiating team in talks with Washington, argued that Iran had "overturned the equation of a ceasefire on paper and its repeated violation on the battlefield."
"As long as there is no genuine will for confidence-building, Iran's response will remain the same," he wrote on X.
President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a more measured tone, arguing that diplomacy and deterrence remained complementary rather than contradictory.
"We will firmly defend the rights of the nation and retreat before no threat," he wrote. "Diplomacy and defense are the two wings of national power; we have abandoned neither the battlefield nor the negotiating table."
Media echo the new strategy
Iranian media quickly expanded on that interpretation, arguing that the strike reflected a broader shift in Tehran's deterrence strategy.
Farda News, a website close to Ghalibaf, argued that attacks on Lebanon would no longer be cost-free and that Israeli actions on one front could trigger responses on another. The outlet also interpreted the reported targeting of the Haifa refinery—described by the IRGC as retaliation for attacks on Iran's petrochemical industry—as an example of "strategic symmetry."
"The era of cost-free attacks on the Resistance Front has ended," it wrote.
Other conservative outlets advanced similar arguments. Tabnak, which is considered close to Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, argued that Tehran had for the first time retaliated militarily for an Israeli attack on a country other than Iran itself.
Khabar Online described the strike as a redefinition of deterrence equations in the Middle East, while Rouydad24 argued that Tehran was signalling a willingness to expand both the geography and scope of future confrontations.
Several commentators framed the issue not simply as support for Hezbollah but as a test of Iran's credibility with its regional allies. Allowing Hezbollah to be weakened or destroyed without a response, they argued, would undermine decades of Iranian regional strategy and raise questions about the reliability of Tehran's support for its partners.
Mixed reactions online
Public reactions on social media were more divided.
Some users criticized Iran's involvement on behalf of Hezbollah. One commenter wrote that Iran had effectively become "the proxy force of a foreign group called Hezbollah," arguing that resources intended to strengthen Iran's own security were instead being spent defending an ally.
Others focused on the domestic costs of escalation.
"If they hit our water, electricity, refineries and power plants tomorrow, remember that your Revolutionary Guard brothers dragged Iran into war because of Lebanon," one user wrote.
Several users expressed concern that prolonged conflict could make Iran resemble Lebanon, a country long marked by instability and recurring wars.
"I fear the Beirutization of Tehran," one commenter wrote. "I am terrified of the Beirutization of Iran."
Together, the reactions highlighted a widening debate over the costs and benefits of Tehran's regional strategy. While officials and conservative media presented the strike as the emergence of a new deterrence doctrine, many ordinary Iranians appeared more concerned about the risks that such a doctrine could bring at home.
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.
