As Iran and US near a deal, Tehran remembers another recent bloody conflict
Iranian authorities say assassinations and strikes over the past year have failed to deter them. Tehran, Iran – The anniversary of a 12-day war between
Iranian authorities say assassinations and strikes over the past year have failed to deter them. Tehran, Iran – The anniversary of a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025 is being marked this week in Tehran, as American and Iranian officials engage in last-minute negotiations to end a more recent conflict between the two sides. Tehran and Washington have signalled that a deal to shift a rocky 60-day ceasefire to a more comprehensive peace and cooperation agreement is close. But amid the ongoing uncertainty over the outcome of these talks – and in particular the potential for Israel to sabotage them – Iranian cities are hosting commemorations for the dozens of senior military commanders killed between 13 to 24 June 2025. Some of those killed in the 12-day war, known in Israel as Operation Rising Lion, include Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of armed forces, Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Ali Akbar Hajizadeh, the longtime aerospace chief. State-orchestrated messages and banners have cast the commanders as eschatological figures and “end-times companions” of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad whose death more than 1,300 years ago has become a fundamental tenet in Shia Islam’s emphasis on “martyrdom” and resistance to injustice. Universities will also host state-run commemorations for the nuclear scientists and physicists assassinated during last year’s war, such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi. More than 1,000 Iranians were killed in the US-Israeli 12-day bombing campaign, including several hundred civilians and dozens of children, while at least 3,468 people have been killed, close to half of them civilians, in Iran’s current war with the US and Israel, according to government figures.
Among those killed on February 28, the first day of the latest war, was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, it was announced on Saturday, will be buried at a Shia shrine in Mashhad at the end of six days of proceedings during the second week of July. It has been a very bloody and costly 12 months for Iran, but one that the government has portrayed as a necessary struggle to ward off foreign domination. Speaking to state television on Friday night, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described how the country had refused to buckle to US demands after the 12-day war – such as zero nuclear enrichment taking place on Iranian soil – and this resolute approach to maintaining the country’s sovereignty should continue. “The negotiations did not lead to war, resistance led to war. Our enemies had demands that they tried to reach during negotiations, we resisted, they turned to war,” Araghchi said. But despite the losses and damages, the government believes it is in a more superior position compared with last year. It has survived two wars against the US and Israel and effectively took control of the Strait of Hormuz – through which, before the war, approximately a fifth of the world’s oil passed – to disrupt global energy markets. The chief justice of Iran, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said that US leaders have yet to understand the ideology and perseverance of the theological establishment in Tehran, which is prepared to make more sacrifices. The Islamic month of Muharram begins June 16 and includes the Day of Ashura, which commemorates the death of Husayn and an important date in the Iranian calendar.
The BriefWire