Akhtar Makoii
London: “Hundreds of American soldiers have been captured across the Gulf. US military bases throughout the region lie in ruins. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dead or gravely wounded.
Washington officials are begging for a ceasefire while the US loses control of a war that will not end until Iran says so. Relentless Iranian missile strikes are smashing Israel while enemies plead for mercy, and the US strike groups are rendered non-functional and forced to retreat after being hit with missiles.”
This is the war as it is seen and heard on Iranian state media, the only source available to millions of people living under fire during a near-total communications blackout that has cut internet access.
Persian-language satellite news channels broadcasting from outside Iran have also been jammed and people who use satellite internet devices are being arrested.
What they are hearing bears limited resemblance to the war documented by human rights groups, Western media and the social media posts that occasionally break through the information blockade.
For a window into the propaganda machine, London’s Telegraph spent much of the last two weeks tuning in to Iranian state television’s war coverage.
For several hours on Friday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Netanyahu had been killed or seriously wounded in an Iranian strike.
State broadcasts spoke of the daring capture of US soldiers and airmen, with reports about shooting down a US jet every other day and a drone every other hour.
On March 8, the mood across Iranian media shifted from mourning-black graphics and funeral dirges to jubilant celebration as they announced that Mojtaba Khamenei had been selected as the new supreme leader.
The anchor shouted the news at the top of his lungs. Four days later, another presenter bellowed the new supreme leader’s first written statement, reading each line as if delivering a battle cry.
The TV screen split into three frames. Regime supporters flooded the streets, waving Iranian flags in one corner, while missiles and drones launched towards Israel and American bases in the Gulf in another, and rockets fell on Israeli cities in the third frame.
News outlets evoked the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that started in 1980, a conflict that is seared into Iran’s collective memory as a period of national unity against foreign aggression.
With each missile fired towards Israel or American bases, state TV broadcast the same martial music that accompanied strike footage during the war against Iraq.
Revolutionary songs from the 1980s play continuously across all channels, interspersed with religious hymns referring to Imam Ali, the first Shia imam, with themes of martyrdom.
The main military spokesman providing updates has no name visible on his uniform. He is identified only as “a sacrifice for Iran”.
Citizens are urged to take to the streets every night after iftar, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, during what state media calls the “war of Ramadan”, giving the conflict an added religious element.
State television broadcasts these rallies extensively and shows crowds carrying Iranian flags with participants declaring loyalty to the new supreme leader and vowing to fight until victory.
The media show messages written on missiles before launch, with one reading: “In the memory of victims of Epstein’s island.” The image, which appears to have been doctored to include the message, has also been widely shared by pro-regime accounts on social media.
Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, said on Friday: “Mr [US Defence Secretary Pete] Hegseth! Our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein’s island.”
He followed it up on Sunday with a post on social media site X claiming “what remains of Epstein’s network” was plotting a 9/11-style attack to place the blame on Iran.
Anti-war protesters marching through London later that day were joined by a van with a screen showing an AI-generated image of US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Iran uses missiles for other messages too.
“Consolation for the grieving hearts of the mothers of Minab, and the patient hearts of the fathers,” reads the text on another rocket, referring to the bombing of a girls’ school that killed more than 165 people, most of them children.
“The hand of God has been revealed – Khamenei has become young – this battle continues,” another message reads.
The US struck the school on the opening day of the war, a preliminary Pentagon investigation has found.
What Iranian state television does not show is equally revealing.
Coverage of many other strikes on Iran is largely absent from broadcast television, appearing occasionally in brief text updates on Telegram channels operated by state news agencies.
Reports refer to general areas hit in Tehran and other cities but provide minimal detail about damage or casualties.
The broadcasts create an impression of limited, sporadic strikes on civilian targets such as hospitals rather than the comprehensive campaign documented by residents and human rights monitors.
Unlike neighbouring countries that have developed air raid sirens, mobile phone alerts and public shelter networks, Iran has no functioning infrastructure to warn its citizens of impending attacks.
State television does not offer advice to those seeking shelter, with no prepared public shelters available. During the 12-day war in June, citizens were occasionally advised to shelter in metro stations.
The messages threatening dissidents or protesters, meanwhile, are explicit and repeated.
Iran’s national police commander, Ahmad-Reza Radan, appeared on state television to warn: “If anyone comes to the streets at the enemy’s behest, we do not see them as protesters. We see them as enemies and will deal with them as we deal with enemies. All our boys have their hands on the trigger, ready.”
Intelligence sources from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened “a blow harder than Jan 9” – referring to the violent response to anti-regime protests two months ago that killed thousands – if any demonstrations happened during the war.
Daily funeral coverage provides the only consistent acknowledgement of Iranian casualties.
State television shows mourning families, flag-draped coffins and burial ceremonies, but the broadcasts frame every death as martyrdom in defence of Iran rather than civilian casualties of war.
Human rights groups estimate that more than 1300 civilians have been killed in Iran by air strikes since the war began. Estimates of how many were killed by the regime during January’s protests range from 7000 to 30,000. Many of those were buried without ceremony.
The ensuing information blockade means millions of people are experiencing war through a lens that bears limited resemblance to the war outside. Iranians are being told that victory is certain while bombs continue to fall on their homes.
The Telegraph, London
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