Iran Israel war: Tehran funerals draw millions after 2 die in Israeli strike

[BYLINE] Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

Masses flooded central Tehran on Monday for the funerals of former parliament speaker Ali Larijani and Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, hours after Israeli forces killed 2 people in a dawn raid on the Syrian frontier, Iranian state television reported.

State broadcasters put the crowd at 3 million, making it the largest funeral turnout since Soleimani’s 2020 killing.

The dual ceremonies escalated tensions that have seen Israel strike Iranian-linked sites across Syria and Lebanon daily since October 7, while Tehran-backed militias fire rockets at Israeli positions, analysts said.

Mourners carried red, green and black flags past the parliament building where Larijani, 66, had presided for 12 years until 2020. Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab addressed the crowd from the same podium where her father had lain in state four years earlier. “Your presence is a message to Tel Aviv,” she said, state TV reported.

The funeral cortege moved south toward the main cemetery as loudspeakers broadcast a recording of Soleimani promising to “liberate Jerusalem”. Iranian Health Minister Bahram Eynollahi told reporters that 38 people were treated for heat exhaustion but none required hospitalization.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirmed at a 09:00 GMT briefing that Israeli aircraft had struck “terror infrastructure” in southern Syria at 04:30 local time. Syrian state news agency SANA reported 2 civilians killed and 4 wounded in the village of Hadar, 3 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military released infrared video showing what it described as a weapons depot exploding. Hagari said the facility stored missiles shipped from Iran. Syrian army sources told Reuters the site was an abandoned agricultural warehouse.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations issued a statement at 14:00 GMT blaming Israel for “assassinating our diplomatic protectors in Damascus” and vowed to respond “at a time and place of our choosing”. The statement did not specify what action Tehran might take.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington that President Joe Biden had been briefed overnight. “We urge all parties to avoid further escalation,” Kirby said. The Pentagon deployed the USS Bataan amphibious ready group to the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, defense officials confirmed.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell cancelled a scheduled trip to Cairo and convened an emergency video meeting of EU ambassadors at 16:00 GMT. “The risk of regional conflagration is real,” Borrell told reporters afterwards.

The funerals coincided with the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s killing in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport. Iranian authorities declared Monday a national holiday and closed schools, banks and government offices. Mobile-phone networks slowed to a crawl as millions uploaded footage of the processions.

In Beirut, Hezbollah held a parallel memorial attended by senior Lebanese politicians. Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a pre-recorded speech aired on al-Manar TV that “the response to Soleimani’s blood continues”. Hezbollah has exchanged daily fire with Israeli forces since October 7, killing 9 Israeli soldiers and 140 Hezbollah fighters, according to tallies by both sides.

Oil prices rose 2.1% in London trading, reaching $79.80 per barrel for Brent crude, as traders priced in possible Iranian disruption to shipping lanes. TankerTrackers.com reported three Iranian-flagged vessels changing course away from the Red Sea after the Israeli strike.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet for the second time in 24 hours, aides said. The cabinet authorised the military to “act as necessary” against Iranian entrenchment in Syria, according to a brief statement issued in Jerusalem.

Background

Soleimani headed Iran’s elite Quds Force from 1998 until his death in 2020, overseeing a network of Shiite militias across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The United States designated both him and the Quds Force as terrorist entities in 2007, accusing them of aiding insurgents who killed American troops in Iraq.

Iranian influence expanded after 2011 as Soleimani coordinated support for President Bashar al-Assad during Syria’s civil war. Israeli air strikes have targeted Iranian-linked arms shipments and bases in Syria more than 400 times since 2017, according to Israeli military sources.

What’s Next

Iranian officials told the semi-official Tasnim news agency that a military response to Monday’s Israeli strike is “imminent”, raising fears of direct confrontation for the first time since the two nations fought an aerial duel in April 2018. Analysts expect Hezbollah to intensify cross-border rocket fire while Iran’s proxies in Iraq may resume attacks on U.S. bases that had paused since early December.

Western diplomats are pressing Oman to revive back-channel talks between Tehran and Washington that produced a prisoner swap last August. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said Sultan Haitham bin Tarik will visit Tehran on Wednesday, the first such trip since 2021.