The Iranian Public Are Being Fed Nonsense and Lies About the 12-Day War

In the twelve-day war with Iran, Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes, that destroyed or damaged dozens of nuclear facilities, including those built underground at Natanz and inside a mountain at Fordow, as well as the vast nuclear complex in Isfahan, demolished thousands of ballistic missiles, and factories where ballistic missiles and drones were produced, factories. Agents of Mossad also carried out, sometimes with the assistance of the IDF, the assassinations of dozens of top army and IRGC commanders, and a dozen senior nuclear scientists. Despite all this, the Iranians nonetheless cling to their fantasy that they came out the victors. It is what they tell their own people and themselves, and some of them may actually believe it. It is worth revisiting these IRGC fantasies; more on them can be found here: “Fighting the world, losing the war: IRGC talks big after beatdown by Israel,” by Alex Winston, Jerusalem Post, July 31, 2025:

In the aftermath of the most direct and devastating confrontation between Israel and Iran in the history of the Islamic Republic, the ayatollahs in Tehran have traded silence for shouting. The missiles and planes may have stopped, but the regime’s war of words is just beginning, in a grand attempt to convince its own people that defeat was actually a victory.

For 12 days in June, Israeli drones and warplanes struck deep into Iranian territory. They demolished air-defense batteries, destroyed nuclear facilities, and assassinated senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. What Iran had long called unthinkable, war on its own soil, had become its new reality.

And then, silence.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vanished from view. IRGC commanders went underground. Tehran’s propaganda outlets recycled boilerplate slogans, but the leadership said nothing of substance.

Now, weeks later, they are saying everything, and none of it is real.

At the end of June, Khamenei emerged from hiding and delivered a surreal speech, claiming “decisive victory” over Israel and the United States. According to the ayatollah, the Zionist regime had been “crushed,” and America “slapped in the face.” A handful of retaliatory missiles fired at a US base in Qatar, which caused no known casualties, were presented as triumphs of strategic restraint and divine strength.

Yet in the real world, Iran’s skies had been ruled by Israeli drones. Its nuclear infrastructure was set back by years. Its air defenses were shattered. Its IRGC elite, including Quds Force commanders and senior scientists, were eliminated. What Khamenei portrayed as victory, the region witnessed as a stunning and humiliating exposure of Iran’s vulnerabilities.

Even more troubling was his absence during the war. Multiple credible reports revealed that the supreme leader had been moved to a secure underground facility, his location known to only a handful of aides. Electronic communications were severed. Senior Iranian officials reportedly didn’t know where he was or whether he remained fully briefed. When even insiders are asking who is in charge, it signals a regime in free fall.

‘We fought the world’
In recent days, regime voices have grown louder. IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naeini warned that any future attack from Israel would be met with a “crushing” response, and that the “geography of the battlefield” would change.
“If the Zionist regime launches a new attack on the powerful and resilient Iran, the initiative to end the conflict will be in our hands,” Naeini said.

“We will not allow the sirens in the occupied territories to fall silent, and the enemy must not have the opportunity to leave its shelters,” Naeini stated. “They will experience more fleeing and displacement than they did during the 12-day war.”…

There was scarcely any “fleeing and displacement” by the Israelis during the IDF’s tremendous 12-day war against Iran. The Iranian public are being fed nonsense and lies about that war.