Senior Guards commanders cast the Revolutionary Guard's paramilitary Basij force as central to Iran’s response in June’s 12-day war with Israel and pressed for an expanded role for the force at home and in any future confrontation.
Established in 1979 under IRGC command as a mass mobilization force, the Basij has long been embedded in Iran’s internal security apparatus.
“Basij volunteers were active in the fields of security and public support from the first day of the escalation,” the Revolutionary Guards Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour said on Thursday.
Addressing a nationwide Basij drill, he said public expectations of the Guards and its volunteer network have increased and that both institutions must intensify their efforts.
Rights groups have long documented the Basij’s role in crushing major waves of unrest.
They cite the 2009 post-election protests, the November 2019 crackdown that killed hundreds, and the 2022–23 uprising after Mahsa Amini’s death. Reports describe beatings, arbitrary detentions, and the use of live ammunition. Iranian authorities deny any systematic abuse.
In Zahedan, deputy IRGC commander Ali Fadavi told a Basij rally on Wednesday that June’s clashes signaled “the defeat of the arrogance front,” in reference to the United States and Israel.
He argued the episode marked “the start of a new path” and said Washington sought to halt the fighting after Iran launched missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Washington earlier engaged Tehran over its nuclear program with a 60-day deadline. On June 13, a day after the ultimatum expired, Israel launched a surprise campaign that ended with US strikes on June 22.
Hardline calls for any future confrontation
Basij members oppose ending a future conflict without the complete destruction of Israel, Senior IRGC adviser Mohammadreza Naghdi also said Thursday in Mashhad.
“If another battlefield opens, the Basij’s demand is that we should not stop this war without the complete destruction and elimination of the Zionist regime.”
He described Iran’s adversaries as “in their weakest state” and said the Basij is prepared “to endure any hardship” in a wider war.
“Soon you will be reduced to misery by these Basijis,” said Naghdi.
Earlier in the week, IRGC spokesperson Ali-Mohammad Naeini told a Basij conference that Iran had faced “all of CENTCOM and NATO on its own without seeking assistance from any country.”
Iran’s command structure, he said, was restored quickly after initial strikes and credited coordinated mobilization for sustaining what he called political and economic stability.
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.