WSJ Opinion: Trump, the Media and a Cease-Fire Amid Iran Talks
As talks with Iran get underway, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth condemns the news media's misleading coverage of the bunker bomb strikes on Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, amid a mission briefing from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine. Photo:/Kevin Wolf/AP
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New York Times
36 minutes ago
- New York Times
Iran Holds State Funeral for Military Commanders and Nuclear Scientists
Thousands of mourners thronged the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran, on Saturday at a funeral procession for about 60 people killed in the war with Israel, including some of the country's top military commanders and nuclear scientists. Live coverage by Iranian state television showed streets that were barren during the 12-day war now packed for the state funeral. Participants waved green, red and white Iranian flags, red banners with religious slogans or branches of white flowers. The often-heard public chants in the Islamic Republic, 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel,' rang out as trucks with caskets in the back inched along the route between two of Tehran's main squares. From there, the caskets were expected to be transferred for burial at various cemeteries. Some of the deceased will be interred with their families. There was no sign of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but President Masoud Pezeshkian marched in the procession. The funeral was a reminder of the heavy toll Iran had paid not only in losses from the top echelon of its military forces, but also from its contentious nuclear program. Among more than 600 people killed in the Israeli attacks, 90 of them were military personnel, according to Iranian state television. The dead included at least 11 prominent nuclear scientists. The coffins were covered in a clear wrap over an Iranian flag and scattered with rose petals. One truck held the caskets of children, according to Press TV, a state media outlet. As the dead passed, mourners reached out to kiss or touch the coffins. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Iran holds first state funerals for military leaders, nuclear scientists killed in Israeli strikes
Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the streets of downtown Tehran on Saturday for the funeral of the head of the Revolutionary Guard and other top commanders and nuclear scientists killed during a 12-day war with Israel. The caskets of Guard's chief Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard's ballistic missile program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh and others were driven on trucks along the capital's Azadi Street as people in the crowds chanted: "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Salami and Hajizadeh were both killed on the first day of the war, June 13, as Israel launched a war it said meant to destroy Iran's nuclear program, specifically targeting military commanders, scientists and nuclear facilities. State media reported more than 1 million people turned out for the funeral procession, which was impossible to independently confirm, but the dense crowd packed the main Tehran thoroughfare along the nearly three-mile route. There was no immediate sign of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the state broadcast of the funeral. Khamenei, who has not made a public appearance since before the outbreak of the war, has in past funerals held prayers for fallen commanders over their caskets before the open ceremonies, later aired on state television. Mourners attend the funeral ceremony of the Iranian armed forces generals, nuclear scientists and their family members who were killed in Israeli strikes, at Islamic Revolution Square (Enghelab Square) square, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 28, 2025. Vahid Salemi / AP Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was on hand, and state television reported that Gen. Esmail Qaani, who heads the foreign wing of the Revolutionary Guard, the Quds Force, and Gen. Ali Shamkhani were also among the mourners. Shamkhani, an adviser to Khamenei who was wounded in the first round of Israel's attack and hospitalized, was shown in a civilian suit leaning on a cane in an image distributed on state television's Telegram channel. Iran's Revolutionary Guard was created after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Since it was established, it has evolved from a paramilitary, domestic security force to a transnational force that has come to the aid of Tehran's allies in the Middle East, from Syria and Lebanon to Iraq. It operates in parallel to the country's existing armed forces and controls Iran's arsenal of ballistic missiles, which it has used to attack Israel twice during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Over 12 days before a ceasefire was declared on Tuesday, Israel claimed it killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, while hitting eight nuclear-related facilities and more than 720 military infrastructure sites. More than 1,000 people were killed, including at least 417 civilians, according to the Washington-based Human Rights Activists group. Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted, but those that got through caused damage in many areas and killed 28 people. A mourner touches the flag-draped coffin of Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Hossein Salami, during the funeral ceremony, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 28, 2025. Vahid Salemi / AP Saturday's ceremonies were the first public funerals for top commanders since the ceasefire, and Iranian state television reported that they were for 60 people in total, including four women and four children. Authorities closed government offices to allow public servants to attend the ceremonies. Many in the crowd expressed feelings of anger and defiance. "This is not a ceasefire, this is just a pause," said 43-year-old Ahmad Mousapoor, waving an Iranian flag. "Whatever they do, we will definitely give a crushing response." State media published images of an open grave plot at Tehran's sprawling Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery where army chief of staff, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, who was killed on the first day of the war, was to be buried beside his brother, a Guards commander killed during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. Many of the others were to be buried in their hometowns. Mourners try to touch the flag-draped coffins during the funeral ceremony of the Iranian armed forces generals, nuclear scientists and their family members who were killed in Israeli strikes, at Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) square, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 28, 2025. Vahid Salemi / AP The Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency confirmed that the top prosecutor at the notorious Evin prison had been killed in an Israeli strike on Monday. It reported that Ali Ghanaatkar, whose prosecution of dissidents led to widespread criticism by human rights groups, would be buried at a shrine in Qom. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. But Israel views it as an existential threat and said its military campaign was necessary to prevent Iran from building an atomic weapon. Khamenei's last public appearance was June 11, two days before hostilities with Israel broke out, when he met with Iranian parliamentarians. On Thursday, however, he released a pre-recorded video, in his first message since the end of the war, filled with warnings and threats directed toward the United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic's longtime adversaries. The 86-year-old downplayed U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites as having not achieved "anything significant" and claimed victory over Israel. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, has characterized the damage done by American bunker-buster bombs to Iran's Fordo nuclear site, which was built into a mountain, as "very, very, very considerable."
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The Moral Paralysis Facing Iranians Right Now
Last week, when bombs were falling over Iran, I saw a post on social media that posed a harrowing question to Iranians: Would you rather have a stranger kill your abusive father, or have him continue to live and abuse your family? While the question is hypothetical, the post struck me as a painfully precise metaphor for the anguish Iranians are enduring following recent attacks from Israel and the United States. I, like so many other Iranians, am caught in the devastating paradox of this moment: witnessing a hated internal oppressor — a regime in which people can be killed because of what they wear and what they believe — being attacked by a reviled external aggressor, a state engaged in a campaign of devastating and indiscriminate violence against the population of Gaza. Now, as the fragile cease-fire between Iran and Israel holds, Iranians are crushed by the emotional weight of pondering the future of their country. Many, like me, have been gripped by a moral paralysis: a schadenfreude at the death of a brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander curdling into grief for the innocent lives lost, and rage that a hostile foreign power would terrorize millions and kill hundreds in Iran to achieve its aim. I grew up in Iran during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war, a brutal conflict that landed in a nation already scarred by a century of foreign intervention, most notably the 1953 C.I.A.-backed coup. During those years, I experienced how the Islamic Republic weaponized morality to justify continuing the war while simultaneously inflicting fear and violence on its own people. This formative experience has guided my 15-year career as a scholar of moral psychology, investigating how our most sacred values can paradoxically lead us to intractable conflict and hate. In this moment of deep uncertainty for my country, my studies of the dark side of human morality have helped me make sense of the fraught moral calculations of a nation. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
