Iran’s government released staged photos of Supreme Leader Ayatollah in an effort to project strength and bolster a military under pressure, according to opposition groups based outside the country.
The images, published by Iranian state media on Jan. 31, marked Khamenei’s first public appearance in weeks and showed him praying at the tomb of Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as regime officials issued fresh threats against the U.S. and Europe.
Ali Safavi, a senior official with the, said the photos were less about reassuring the public and more about lifting morale among the regime’s weakening security forces.
“The pictures of Ali Khamenei were pure propaganda,” Safavi told Digital. “He wanted to show he’s not afraid of death, but at the same time he’s urgently trying to boost the spirits of his demoralized troops.”
Safavi noted that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remains the backbone of the regime’s power but is showing signs of strain after weeks of suppressing nationwide protests.
“These images are meant to convey strength and shore up the repressive forces,” he said. “But underneath, the regime is reeling from the fact that its criminal clique can’t break the people’s will — and Khamenei knows things will never go back to how they were before Dec. 28.”
The photo release coincided with moves to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
“The IRGC is the foundation of this regime,” Safavi said. “Its collapse can only happen after a fundamental shift in the balance of power and with organized resistance on the ground. Only then do lower-level military defections become meaningful.”
Tehran reacted angrily to the European action, with Iranian lawmakers appearing in IRGC uniforms in a highly orchestrated show of solidarity, according to reports.
A banner reading, “The Revolutionary Guard is the world’s largest anti-terrorism organization,” was displayed at the speaker’s podium, and the IRGC flag was prominently featured, per the
“We saw the same thing when the U.S. labeled the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization in 2019,” Safavi said.
“More than half of these lawmakers are former IRGC commanders,” he added. “The IRGC dominates Iran’s economy and penetrates the executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as educational institutions.”
After the U.S. deployed a carrier group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region, Khamenei also warned Sunday — in comments reported by Iranian state media — that any military action would trigger a wider regional conflict.
“We don’t start wars,” Khamenei said. “But if America attacks or harms Iran, the Iranian nation will deliver a powerful blow — and any war started by America will spread across the region,” he said, according to
President said Sunday that if Iran does not reach a nuclear deal, “we’ll find out” whether Khamenei’s warning holds true.
“Doing business with Iran means doing business with the IRGC,” Safavi said. “The IRGC is the regime — even the clerics.”