Tension escalates where ‘death to Israel’ was chanted
A strong explosion shook Ferdowsi Square in Tehran this Friday. Thousands of people gathered there for the annual Quds Day demonstration, a state event where slogans against Israel and the United States are chanted.
Crucially, the Israeli government had publicly warned that it would attack the area. He did it through a message in Farsi on the social network X. But few Iranians saw it. The authorities have had the internet service practically closed for weeks since this war began.
“Under this rain and these missiles we will never retreat,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, head of Iran’s judiciary, told state television just as the attack occurred.
His bodyguards immediately surrounded him. Images from the scene showed smoke rising as some protesters chanted “God is greatest.” So far, there are no reports of victims.
A conflict that no longer knows borders
This explosion in the heart of the Iranian capital underlines a fierce escalation. Iran maintains its missile and drone attacks against Israel and Gulf countries. In addition, it has de facto closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
The consequences are already global. The price of Brent crude oil is around $100 per barrel, 40% higher than when this confrontation began in late February. Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon deepens: almost 800 dead and 850,000 displaced by the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Israeli army published a second message after the explosion in Tehran. He criticized Iran for preventing its population from seeing the initial warning. It is a revealing detail about how this war is fought: also in the field of information.
Given this, the statements of US President Donald Trump sound like another planet. In an interview with Fox News he said the war will end “when I feel it in my bones.” Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the bones and concrete are truly shaking.
