The following has been translated from Farsi from an article looking at reactions within Iran to the US airstrike on Qasem Soleimani.
Reactions among different groups in Iranian society
The reactions among the Iranians about the recent developments in Iraq and Iran shows the high concern about an imminent war. Iran by force and threatening made people to come to streets and participate in Soleimani’s funeral. Iran ministry of culture suspended the student’s exam date.
A source in Tehran says, the huge number of people that showed up in streets in Mash’had, Kerman and Tehran shows the huge number of unemployed Iranians that live in poverty. In the cities of Iran’s west the authorities announced via the mosques that whoever participated would receive a food basket containing rice, beans, Oil, meat and tomato paste.
An Iranian resident of the the Azeri City of Tabriz described how “people stormed in to markets to buy and store essential commodities and food. By all the stupidity that Iran did, Iranians are in edge of a war more than ever. It can happen any moment.”
Another one says “US has no plan and it only make the situation more complicated. If they want to protect Iranians, they should target military bases. And after that we will decide which Government we want.”
On social media pro and anti-regime Iranians started attacking each other in response to an online vote of who is happy or who is unhappy with killing Qasem Soleimani and if they should participate in ceremonies or not.
There are Iranians that are extremely happy with death of Soleimani, but who say it doesn’t mean that we are happy that the US did it. we don’t want foreign interference.
Another group of Iranians that are the majority agree with what the US did and they see the only solution for bringing down the regime in Iran as action by an external force.
A group of elderly Iranians mainly in religious cities and influenced by IRGC related propaganda news channels, condemn the US act.
Another group are the Pro regime supporters who have benefitted materially from the regime and would stand to lose everything if it fell.
There’s a number of Iranian nationalists abroad who consider that Soleimani was a national hero. Their number is not visible but they held ceremonies in Europe, London and Canada for him.
Kurds on Social media while celebrating Soleimani’s death behind closed doors because of his role in suppression of the Kurds in during decades respond to the sayings that US violated Iraqi sovereignty by asking why there was no reaction to Iran’s violation of Iraqi sovereignty during a missile attack on the Iranian Kurdish political bases in Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2018.
A Telegram group related to IRGC with members of Iranian forces and advisors in Syria published a statement to incite against Kurdish MPs who boycotted today’s session of the Iraqi parliament to vote for US expelling. ” to kurds in northern Iraq: once the US will leave Iraq, it will be only us ( iran) , Baghdad and you (kurds) who will be destroyed.
In the same Telegram Channel, the admin posted about a huge military cargo that has been unloaded in Chabahar Port in evening of January 4th . Chabahar Port is a seaport in Chabahar located in southeastern Iran.
Iranian IRGC commanders responses:
Mohsen Rezaee the Senior military officers in a tweet to reply to Trump wrote:
“If the US takes action after our military response, we will destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa.
if the US knew Qassem Suleimani’s martyr would become a major uprising in Iran, wouldn’t do it. with this assassination, the Iranian-Iraqi nation and the Front of Resistance have actually been attacked. First, the Iranian and Iraqi people will take revenge, we are serious about retaliating against Trump and his soldiers, and the second is in response to Trump saying that if you take revenge, we should attack If that is the case, then we will destroy Haifa and important Israeli centers . Everyone knows that we have acted decently, and in the recent incident we did not launch an attack, and America has attacked. with the same logic of resistance, we will take revenge till the full security return in the Muslim world.”
Former commander of the Quds Force, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi:
“Israel has been at the center of the plot. The Israelis must wait for the answer. Anyone else who supports this assassination should wait for our response. A hard hit can be a series of events that lock the soul in their breasts and push them to Iran to beg them to stop. They have to be in a constant nightmare from now on and this is not going to end anytime soon. Response may be in the sequence of events, and this happens over time. Iran will act deliberately, sophisticated and painful in its design.”
Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council :
“Americans and the hegemony system will soon realize that Qassem Suleimani dead is more dangerous to them than him being alive. Our response to American crime is certainly military, but it will not be limited to military action.”
Iran’s Minister of Defence Amir Hatami says:
“Iran’s missile capability is a deterrent to enemy threats, which is why Westerners are sensitive to Iran’s missile defense program. Iran’s missile capability guarantees regional security and stability. Today we are witnessing a very stupid move by US; the assassination of a supreme commander on an official visit to the neighboring country with the host has basically no place in international law. The unjustly blood revenge will be taken from all the perpetrators.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.mideastcenter.org/post/reactions-in-iran-to-the-death-of-qasem-soleimani-the-regime-and-the-opposition.