Iran's regime behind deadly blast at Soleimani's grave - opinion

Banner reading “harsh response” alluding to the ayatollah

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the ayatollahs in Iran have been reading the Bible and using it as the basis of a screenplay for another Ayatollah-wood film production.

Last week, some 100 Iranians were killed and more than 200 wounded in a carefully timed twin blast in the city of Kerman, near the grave of former IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) commander Qasem Soleimani, marking the fourth anniversary of his death.

Inconveniently, ISIS claimed responsibility the day after the bombings, which the Islamic regime had reflexively blamed on Israel the day before. But the likelihood of ISIS having any role other than being a useful idiot to the Islamic regime’s status as the godfather of terror is about as probable as Iran making reparations for holding dozens of American hostages in 1979 and 1980. Certainly, Iranians not only don’t believe it, they are ridiculing the notion.

However, for the Islamic regime, facts don’t matter. ISIS can claim responsibility, and the regime will use that to its advantage. At the same time, the regime blames Israel and tries to use that to their advantage as well. Even in the most absurd horror films, there are not two murderers. Not in Ayatollah-wood, however.

In fact, in the days following the bombings, the plot thickened when the events of that day became clearer: It was all executed by the Islamic regime.

Marziyeh Amirizade (credit: Marziyeh Amirizade)

Marziyeh Amirizade (credit: Marziyeh Amirizade)

The timing of the bombings is important because they took place 40 days before February 11, the day on which the Islamic regime celebrates the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that brought the ayatollahs to power. It’s become clear that the explosions were not an act against the regime but rather perpetrated by the regime itself.

ISIS is cut from the Islamic regime’s cloth. It’s not plausible that it would have anything to do with this domestic terrorist act. The much more plausible case is that the explosions were in preparation for the regime orchestrating a dangerous crackdown that had already begun domestically. They also laid the groundwork for future terrorist acts around the world against Israel and others, under the guise of avenging the assassination of their terrorist proxy puppets in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon.

Immediately following the back-to-back explosions, it was obvious to most Iranians that the Islamic regime had committed the crime. They killed ordinary citizens at the memorial for Soleimani for their own political gain: to stir up protests against Israel and legitimize planned attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets, thus mobilizing their radical supporters around the world.

Horrifying, theatrical reality

It is clear that the regime was using the same tactics as when I was growing up in Iran – to pretend that Iranians support the regime.

As Iranian children, we were forced to go to mass protests in order to be used as extras in their evil productions. Our lines were always the same: “Death to America. Death to Israel.” Ostensibly, the memorial for Qasem Soleimani was meant to show that Iranians were united in their love for the assassinated former IRGC leader and the regime.

Sometimes real life is more horrifying than a cinematographic depiction, but in this case both are equally horrifying. It was clear that the whole thing was orchestrated. For someone who has become an icon and martyr of the regime, not Soleimani’s family, the IRGC generals, nor government officials attended his memorial, making it clear that it was a farce. Only ordinary citizens and students who were forced to participate were present and became its victims.

The biblical narrative that these domestic terrorist acts bring to mind is 1 Kings 3:16-28. In this story, two women approach King Solomon to resolve a dispute over who was the mother of the baby they each claimed as theirs. Solomon ruled to cut the baby in half, sparking an outcry from the real mother who, in the end, was granted her baby.

The modern Islamic regime version of this was captured on film for the world to see. In one video, a couple sits dispassionately in front of a camera, showing how proud they are that their son (whose picture is displayed behind them) is now a “martyr.” One must ask how they could ever win a Best Supporting Actor award for their dead son without showing any sign of grief. But they read their script and were no doubt rewarded by the regime/producer.

Another video also went viral of a woman wailing over her son’s Iranian-flag-draped coffin. The twist is that the child whose death was celebrated by one woman was the same child for whom the other woman grieved uncontrollably. Iranians know the regime’s tactic of producing fake films too well and regard the first video as a prequel of what’s to come. For King Solomon, this would be an open-and-shut case.

One does not need to understand Farsi to understand the plot that Iranians know all too well.

Same old tactics

The massacre of innocent civilians is the same tactic used by the regime since the Islamic Revolution.

On August 19, 1978, Islamic revolutionaries and radical followers of Ayatollah Khomeini set fire to the Cinema Rex in the city of Abadan, killing almost 500 people. This was carried out as a pretext to blame the Shah, and trigger the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Just as they did then, this week the Islamic terrorists tried to deceive Iranians and foster anger as a weapon of their revolution.

Back then, they blamed the Shah. Today, they blame Israel and the US. Same strategy, different scapegoat.

The difference now is that Iranians living under the heel of Islamic extremism for 45 years know the truth; they know that the Islamic regime is manipulating them while spilling their blood. Being forced to pivot from blaming Israel with ISIS taking responsibility, the regime will try to get Iranians to think that they are, in fact, their faithful protectors against ISIS. But Iranians know better and are expressing themselves publicly.

The regime has a long history of spilling innocent blood. Other examples are the regime’s intentional shooting down of Ukrainian Air Flight 752 on January 8, 2020, killing 176, immediately following Soleimani’s death; and in 2022, to deflect protests following the regime’s murder of Mahsa Amini and to intimidate others, the regime gassed more than 1,000 schoolgirls, perversely using their deaths to spread their propaganda.

Fortunately, most Iranians understand these tactics after decades of suffering under the Islamic terrorists. Iranians understand that they have been victims of the regime’s own cruel and evil acts, both in the past and during this last week. There’s clear evidence that this week’s explosions were committed by the IRGC.

Another remarkable bit of evidence documenting that the recent bombing was choreographed by the regime came from Dr. Mehdi Ahmadinejad, the director of a major hospital. Ahmadinejad foolishly revealed in a national TV interview that all the hospitals in the city of Kerman and other nearby cities were warned in advance: “We had already prepared the conditions, and all the hospitals were in 100% readiness.”

His bragging that they handled the situation effectively by providing help to the wounded not only proved the regime’s responsibility for the attacks but also provided a way for the regime to show off their emergency medicine capabilities.

Significance of the date

The fact that this crime took place exactly 40 days after the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution is also significant. The regime knows that relatives of the victims will gather on the 40th day to memorialize their loved ones as is the custom in Iran. This will give the regime the opportunity to create an Ayatollah-wood sequel, ostensibly to show the world that many Iranians are celebrating the Islamic Revolution’s anniversary. It brings the idea of fake news to a new level.

The regime knows that millions of Iranians hate them and will never support them. The 40th day from the anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths will create a big crowd, bringing people out of their homes to mourn. The regime will manipulate this to spread lies about the supporters of the regime.

On January 7, 2020, at the funeral of Qasem Soleimani, more than 50 people were killed and over 200 were wounded because of the regime’s mismanagement. They forced many students to attend the funeral and filled many buses with their followers from all around the country – including many poor Afghans with promises of food – as props to show how much Iranians loved him. Because of the large crowd, a stampede took place during the burial procession.

While the regime was trying to create the impression of how much Iranians loved Soleimani, millions of Iranians were offering cookies to each other in the streets and celebrating his death because he personified the evil of the regime and how they victimized average Iranians.

Iranians’ social media posts created a new hashtag, #Kotlet, referring to Soleimani’s death essentially as a well-known Persian fried meat patty. Iranians intentionally started cooking kotlet and shared these pictures on social media to show how much they liked kotlet, a double entendre for how happy they were that Qasem Soleimani had become like a kotlet, his body unrecognizable like a fried ground beef patty. Today, when people post videos of themselves serving kotlet as an anti-regime message, they risk being arrested.

Immediately following the explosions in Kerman last week, Iran’s terrorist “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Khamenei, announced they were preparing to exact harsh revenge. Blaming Israel is simply an excuse to carry out more of the terrorist acts that they had already planned against Israel, Israeli offices, and Jewish communities around the world.

ISIS claiming responsibility is a smoke screen for the truth. In the coming weeks, as the regime plans its “celebrations” of the 1979 revolution, it is important to be vigilant about any suspicious activities around the world. And it is important to lift the veil on the pretense that the Islamic regime can be reasoned with or that the West’s appeasement of it will lead to anything other than the enabling of more terror.

For 45 years, Iranians have lived in a real-life horror film, butchered and brutalized by their own “leaders,” and victims of their domestic and international terrorist policies. May 2024 be the last year that anyone ever celebrates the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  

The writer is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity. She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and activist for religious freedom. Reach her at www.MarzisJourney.com.