Hundreds of thousands of people -“millions” according to the official media iranian – participating this Monday on the events in Tehran for the funeral of general Qasem Soleimani, who died last week in a us bombing in Iraq, a few ceremonies that have been led by the iranian supreme leader, ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is, according to various observers, the funeral largest in the history of Iran from the one who in 1989 gave the last goodbye to Ruhola Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution. The regime is taking advantage of the murder of the controversial Soleimani, chief of the force, The al-Quds Revolutionary Guard and considered a hero by much of the iranian society, to cement their support at a time when the country was emerging from a wave of social protests harshly repressed by the security forces.
in the first hour of Monday has held a prayer by the general who died in the University of Tehran in which Khamenei has cried on several occasions, according to the agency iranian news Tasneem. Khamenei has once again warned that there will be a “hard revenge” against those responsible for the death of Soleimani and has added that “the path of the resistance will remain with force”. At the ceremony were present senior officials of iranian president Hassan Rohani, the president of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, and the head of judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi.
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After this, you have booted a procession in which the body of Soleimani is being transferred to Azadi square (Freedom), located in the west of the capital. Those present in the procession, which extends for several streets in the city, according to images broadcast by the local media have carried photos of Soleimani, as well as flags of Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. The daughter of Soleimani, Zeinab, has been directed to the present and has emphasized that “the name of Qasem Soleimani shakes now the nest of zionism, the takfirismo and the hegemonic order”.
“the united States and zionism should know that the martyrdom of my father has awakened most human instincts in the face of resistance. Turn your life into a nightmare and destroy their nests out of spider”, he added. It is expected that the body of Soleimani is moved from Tehran to Qom, a centre of pilgrimage in shi’ism, where they held another ceremony. Subsequently, will be buried on Tuesday in Kernan (south-east), the place of his birth.
The iranian regime will use “the rituals of the period of mourning as a method of political mobilization by mass”, he explains to THE COUNTRY the expert Micha’the Tanchum, the Austrian Institute for European Studies and Security (AIES). The system in iran is divided into various strata, factions and power groups competing among themselves, of who the Revolutionary Guard is one of them, among the most influential that’s for sure. Tanchum is of the opinion that the disappearance of Soleimani, considered the second most powerful man in the country after the supreme leader, will change the “balance of power” as much as the strength of The Quds to continue in operation, as was the own charisma, and the ability of the general killed the thing that had allowed him to gain so much weight in the foreign policy and security of Iran.
Also, the iranian society is divided in its support or rejection with more or less nuances to the regime of the ayatollahs. The economic crisis in the country, exacerbated by the US sanctions, has caused an upset in front of the government that has resulted in the important protests during the last year. The repression of the demonstrators was despiada and, according to Amnesty International, concluded with some 300 dead and thousands arrested. However, there is nothing more to society than an external aggression, and as such it is perceived the murder of Soleimani, a figure revered in the interior of Iran since the war with Iraq even by those who do not sympathize with the ideas of the Islamic Revolution. Nationalism, in Iran as in other parts of the world, is a strong social glue.
For this reason, although people as the adviser of the U.S. Department Len Khodorkovsky has downplayed the massive attendance at the funeral of Soleimani ensuring that the iranian Government forces to march to its citizens, the majority of the experts in Iran believe that the feeling of grief is sincere. Ali Vaez, director of the program on Iran at the International Crisis Group, believes, furthermore, that the attack of the USA will achieve the opposite effect to that desired by the White House and strengthen to “elements more hard and militant” of the regime in the upcoming general elections in February.
Coinciding with the funeral, the successor of Soleimani to the front of the force, The al-Quds, Esmail Qaani, gave an interview to the state television and confirmed that his goal is to “expel America from the region” as a way to avenge the “martyr”. But the dome of Iran is facing a complicated “dilemma”, according to professor Tanchum: “Any large-scale attack against U.S. or its allies will result in a massive retaliation that would devastate the economy of Iran to the point of threatening the survival of the regime. On the other hand, any iranian attack that is not equivalent to the murder of Soleimani will be considered a show of weakness in Tehran. In that case, the ability of intimidation of Tehran in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen will be eroded”. For this reason, believes the expert, beyond attacks on positions of the U.S. in the Middle East using armed groups related to the “logic of survival of the regime” will end up pushed to seek a third country to mediate in order to reduce hostilities, such as Qatar or Turkey.
