Iranian Print Outlets Unanimously Back IRGC’s Missiles Strike on ISIS

(Picture: Mega-size mural in Valiasr Square, central Tehran, depicting missiles held in the hand of an IRGC force, with the tagline: "I'm the gaurdian of Iran.")

Few weeks after the bitter campaigns of the presidential election in May, finally came an occassion which brought Iranian parties, and their mouthpieces, together.

The mid-range missiles launched from western provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan towards Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, Iran's response to the June 7 terrorist attack by ISIS in Tehran, were deemed by the absolute majority in the country as a necessary response to a terrorist group that had undermined Iran's security.

Pro-reform Arman daily, decorated its front page with the headline “Rocket Shock”, hailed the country’s security. Iran today is the same Iran during the sacred defense, the 8-year war against Saddam Hussein's army, which not only refuses to bow down in the face of oppression and carnage, but also gives powerful, unforeseen responses to the US, Daesh and their henchmen, the daily wrote.

Another reform advocate newspaper Aftab Yazd called the strikes a “Terrible Revenge” in its headline and referred to the Supreme Leader’s remarks downplaying Tehran terror attacks as minor firework. “It is now clearer than ever why the Tehran terrorist attacks were called firework. In fact, those attacks were just firework compared to six missiles precisely hitting a building in Deir ez-Zor, in east of Syria,” Aftab Yazd wrote in its cover story.

Moderate newspaper Ebtekar called the strike a “Missiles' Slap” on the face of the terrorists, publishing a review of the reactions, domestic and international, to the missiles strike, while second top Iranian Reformist gazette Etemad dubbed the new episode as “Legitimate Defense” on its headlines. The daily’s cover story signals the continuation of Iran’s defensive responses, writing that the punishment of terrorists is not supposed to be the last one for the crimes they have committed over these years.

Iran daily, the organ of administration, mapped the strike on its front page, going along it’s headline, which reads “Daesh Shot in the Brain”.

“Daesh was not the only one shocked on Sunday midnight. The world also immediately figured that the strike was the most important update of the day,” read Iran’s cover story. The daily quoted IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, saying Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces, with Sunni majority populations, were chosen as the site for launching the missiles as a ‘message of solidarity among all Iranians against the terrorists’.

Hardliner Principlist newspaper Javan Daily added nationalistic flavor to the strikes, with its headline reading “Pinnacle of National Pride over Missiles Strike”. Its Second headline was a quip from General Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces, who said, “Tehran is no London or Paris to Remain Passive”.

Khorasan daily, called the missiles that his ISIS anti-war while Donyaye Eghtesad, a widely circulating paper specializing in economy, investigated what it called “Indirect Targets of Six Zolfaghar Missiles”. According to the paper, the strikes were meant not only as a strong message to Daesh but also for Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Washington. The message communicated is that if a country dares to begin a military battle against Iran, Tehran will be in possession of the necessary means to retaliate.

Shargh daily, the number-one champion of reform, also highlighted the IRGC’s role and the reactions it spark around the world, as its headline read “Explosive Wave of IRGC’s Missiles Strike”. Its opposite number Kayhan, bellwether Principlist daily, called the move Iran’s ‘Soft Response’, implying harsher episodes in the face of threats.