The Kayhan newspaper, known as a mouthpiece for the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, praised the shooter who allegedly murdered a 26-year-old American and a 31-year-old Israeli outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. this week.
“Our dear Basiji brother sent two Zionist beasts to hell with bullets,” the paper read, stating “Washington’s Basij [militia] has announced its presence through this revolutionary action.”
“Any news of our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who sent two Zionist wild animals in Washington to hell with a bullet?” The paper’s editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, said.
This is not the first time Kayhan has praised such violence. It also celebrated the 2022 stabbing of Rushdie in New York as “divine revenge,” writing that “Trump and Pompeo are next.”
Iran’s leaders have a long track record of using violence and terrorism as tools to hold onto power and intimidate their enemies. It goes back to Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie during a period of internal struggle. Since then, the regime has consistently praised violent acts to show strength on the world stage and boost morale at home. Even when these actions hurt Iran’s reputation internationally, the leadership sees them as valuable for reinforcing their message of resistance and control, showing they’re willing to sacrifice lives if it helps their political aims.
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In 2023, the Kayhan argued that “no matter how much noise America or Israel makes over the Rushdie verdict, they cannot extinguish the zeal running through the veins of the Muslim nation.”
This comes after a report from Israel Hayom claiming that the Trump administration is considering agreeing to a temporary nuclear deal with Iran. A senior U.S. official told the Israeli outlet that the proposed agreement would involve Iran halting its nuclear weapons development in return for some easing of sanctions.
Iranian-born Israeli Beni Sabti, an expert on Iran and a research fellow for the Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital that it is “very important that Americans understand that the terror is also or mostly against them.”
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