With top military commanders of Iran speaking during Shiraz funeral and politicians sitting aside, it seems the era of diplomacy and negotiation is over.
It was on this Saturday that the city of Shiraz witnessed a funeral procession attended by tens of thousands of people for the victims of Wednesday’s terrorist attack on the holy shrine of Shah Cheragh. In the bloody attack, 15 Iranians were killed and dozens injured.
Chanting against the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UK, participants in the funeral blamed these countries for their role in for supporting the Daesh terrorist group (ISIS), as pictures of the victims were held up high alongside demands that those responsible be held accountable.
The coffins of the victims are supposed to be transported to the city of Mashhad this Tuesday, where the victims will be laid to rest.
Iran’s Salami vowed revenge
Addressing the procession, Iran’s Major General Hossein Salami spoke to the public and noted that Iran’s political and spiritual influence across the region has led the West to provoke unrest inside Iran, which has been fruitless, adding that the US has a long past of attempting to weaken Iran, with the Islamic Republic withstanding inhumane US sanctions.
On Wednesday, an armed terrorist entered the shrine at approximately 5:45 p.m. local time (14:15 GMT) a little before evening prayers, and by opening fire, killed 13 pilgrims, a woman, and two children in cold blood, leaving at least 40 others wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday.
According to the police commander of Fars province, the assailant was wounded and taken into custody by security personnel, after which he later died due to the severity of his wounds.
Salami directed his speech at Saudi Arabia by declaring that “We vow to achieve all of the revolution’s goals, until the last drop of our blood, just as we have done in the past”, adding: “You will never destabilize our country, we will destabilize yours”.
He further expressed that, “The US wants the Iranian nation to be dependent in order to plunder its natural wealth. It wants the Iranian universities to be shuttered and its public assets torched.”
Salami then addressed the rioting students by saying: “My advice to rioting students is: ‘Return to the nation, don’t play into the hands of enemies… Those flouting hijab and harassing veiled women are following the path of enemies. This ominous plot of riots in Iran has been constructed in US command rooms. We will bury US pipedreams in this land. We also warn Saudi rulers to think about the repercussions of their actions,”
Are commanders replacing diplomats?
Saturday funeral for the victims of Iran’s terrorist attack also send a strong message for Washington and other Iran’s enemies that maybe the era of negotiations and diplomacy is over. This is true because in a close-up of the funeral, it was noticeable that while politicians and diplomats were sitting aside and listening, it was Iran’s top military commanders who took the podium and delivered strong speeches.
“The Iranian nation has well-proven that the US cannot do anything,” General Salami also noted in his speech, adding that the Pentagon did not have the courage to respond when the IRGC targeted the US-run Ain al-Assad base in Iraq’s province of Anbar in 2020, after launching a series of attacks to retaliate against the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander General Qassim Soleimani.
For years, the US and European powers have played a kind of double standard of sanctions and negotiations against Iran, especially regarding Tehran’s nuclear program. But after years of getting along with the western powers, it seems that a new chapter of strong resistance has began for Iran and for this, the US and Europe are to blame.
