Photoshop missile base: Mullah regime sells illusions to international community

The mullah regime in Tehran continues to transmit messages to the international community showing its insistence on displaying its weapons capabilities, at a time when European countries are intensifying their calls for Iran to stop developing its nuclear program and to sit at the negotiating table in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

A video broadcast by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and circulated by the regime's media revealed a missile and drone base with a range of two thousand kilometers.

The announcement came in conjunction with the visit of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi to the Iranian capital, as well as in conjunction with the faltering Vienna nuclear negotiations, in addition to the Russian-Ukrainian war, which Tehran seeks to benefit from by exporting its oil globally to save its economy, which has collapsed as a result of US sanctions.

Reactions

Following the Iranian media’s publication of this video, activists’ comments poured in, between welcoming the regime’s showing of its strength, while others opposed, saying that while some people are preparing shelters for fear, the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards are preparing deterrent forces. A number of activists confirmed that this video is fake and technical programs were used in it, stressing that their evidence of this is that when Washington assassinated late Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2021, Iran did not respond to that incident.

Media distortion

Dr. Masoud Ibrahim Hassan, an Egyptian researcher specializing in Iranian affairs, believes that this video is a kind of “media distortion” to show Iran’s strength and exert pressure on Western countries and the United States, especially with regard to the nuclear program and the Vienna negotiations currently underway, which are about to reach a solution, adding that the goal of is to force Washington to make concessions until it signs a new agreement with Tehran.

Hassan pointed out in an exclusive statement to the Reference that this is related to Iran's desire to highlight the power of its drones, which have carried out many attacks in recent years, especially in some Arab countries. He added that Tehran also wants to show that ballistic missiles, whether they are long, medium or even short-range, are Iran's deterrent weapon; therefore, there is a clause in the nuclear negotiations that states that these missiles should not be negotiated, because they are a “red line” from the point of view of the mullah regime.