Iran Mourns, Western Media Distorts: The Martyrdom of President Raisi

By Marwa Osman

When news broke that Iran’s President Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi had vanished during a helicopter ride in a remote mountainous region of Iran near the border with Azerbaijan, I was on my way to a seminar in Tehran with a group of prominent Journalists as part of the multiple events linked to Iran’s Sobh International Media Festival.

Obviously, the next few hours were longer than we could endure, and the news of the President’s martyrdom shook us to our core. However, as believers we said Inna Lilah wa Inna Ilayi Rajyuun, to Allah we belong and to him we shall return and focused on the legacy of President Raisi, his FM Hussain Amir Abdollahian and all their fallen comrades, but western mainstream media began spitting fire from the very moment the tragedy was announced.

Since the initial reports of the tragic incident involving President Ebrahim Raisi and his companions, the Iranian people have been anxious, taking to the streets en masse. After the announcement of President Raisi's passing, footage showcased millions marching, mournful, paying heartfelt tribute, and chanting their support for what they regarded as a martyr of duty and a prominent leader. The scenes mirrored the profound impact of the loss on the Iranian nation.

On the other side of the world, however, propaganda, lies and hypocrisy were on full display.

Mainstream Western media outlets quickly reacted with a series of misreports and downplays, aiming to diminish the profound sorrow that engulfed Iran following the tragic incident. Meanwhile, people from all across the world vehemently opposed the Western media's narrative, sharing photos and videos of the grieving nation flooding the streets to mourn their beloved President's passing on social media which you will see with Sima later on.

Broadcast media was swamped with propaganda and lies. One particular MSNBC interview that engulfs all the western hypocrisy and lies on could ever hear and watch from a single media outlet that has been time and again proven to be a pro-genocide mouth piece of the American establishment.

Washington Post foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius joined MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on the 1st day of the funeral procession of President Raisi and his comrades to discuss the impact of the Iranian President’s death on the scene in west Asia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_JLLu_g19k

The way that Andrea portrays the Iranian president as “and in between leader” and not a “consequential leader”. If she could care to explain to us what that means. The level of patronization in her tone speaks volume of the level of unprofessional journalism when dealing with a tragedy of this Caliber for a nation that is almost 10,000 km away.

Then Andrea continues to throw around deceptive claims that Seyed Raisi was supposed to be the successor of Imam Sayed Ali Khamenei as leader of the revolution when that is a baseless assumption that president Raisi himself had denounced during his term as president and even before that during his campaign.

Her guest David Ignatius jumps in to say that “he was told” by US intelligence that President Raisi was not the successor of Imam Khamenei, but rather it is Sayyed Mujtaba the son of Khamenei who will succeed him. I think David is pretty confused between Iran and other gulf Arab monarchies who transfer power to their offsprings.

David Ignatius then claims that it is Iran that does not want a confrontation with the United States when in reality throughout the ongoing genocide in Gaza and especially after April 14 when Iran retaliated to the Zionist Israeli aggression against its embassy in Damascus on April 1, we heard nothing but cautions reports coming from the white house, from the secretary of state and from Biden himself saying the US is adamant on not getting pulled into a war with Iran and not the other way around. As per the video below that showcases the phone call between Biden and Netanyahu after Iran’s retaliatory attack on occupied Palestine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0plxCRewWtA

Clearly, the western establishment-funded media outlets do not waste time lying and spewing falsehood when it comes to Iran or to any other sovereign nation that dares stand in the face of western hegemony. But this time they did it after advocating for genocide for almost 8 months and right in the midst of a national tragedy in Iran even before the late president and his comrades were even laid to rest.

Western Media Incite Violence against Iran

What is clear for the masses yet very confusing still for the western mainstream media is that the foreign policy of Iran is anchored in its establishment, not individuals. President Raisi, however, was the personification of Tehran’s foreign policy which is stridently against Zionist "Israel" and pursues the Palestinian cause with utmost dedication, while denouncing US and European arming, funding and supporting the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

The Western media followed with interest the tragic incident of the martyrdom of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, His Excellency Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, along with their companions. Many reports were published about the significant impact of this event on the overall scene in west Asia, focusing on how this tragedy will impact the Republic.

The western media machine believed they could exploit the situation, thinking the Republic was going through a period of weakness to carry out any aggressive acts against it, especially in light of the ongoing conflict between the Islamic Republic and the Zionist entity. This is particularly relevant considering the significant Iranian strike against the entity last month under the leadership of the martyred President Raisi.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/20/iran-president-raisi-death-war-west-first-strike/

Beginning with this degrading news piece by “The Telegraph” written by Mark Wallace and Kasra Aarabi entitled: “The West must strike now, and collapse the Iranian regime.”

Any sane human who would read this piece, would see a new level of denigrating repulsive style that is far from being considered professional journalism. Take this paragraph for instance:

“The 85-year-old ayatollah will surely view the crash that killed Raisi as a “test-run” for his own death and succession. And when seen in this light, the regime’s handling of the past 24 hours will be extremely concerning.”

I do not like to play the game of comparison, but just imagine a similar piece written in the same dreadful way about the catholic Pope or the Sephardi Chief Rabbi and not indeed about the highest-ranking Muslim Shia spiritual leader who is followed by millions of humans around the world. I think all hell would have broken loose if that was the case.

The piece continues as follows:

“This is an opening that should be exploited. We must support the Iranian people’s democratic ambitions to bring an end to a regime that kills its own people, seeks to eradicate the world’s only Jewish state, and exports terror around the world.

Instead of offering condolences to the regime – as EU officials have shamelessly done – the West should be focusing on the Iranian people in its public diplomacy. It should be amplifying the calls of the Iranian people for an end to the Islamic Republic.”

People might hear this and think two clowns wrote this but in reality these are Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, the CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran and a former US Ambassador to the United Nations and Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research at United Against Nuclear Iran. So supposedly these are people who study closely the Iranian nation and its internal and foreign policy. But allow me to say this was the dumbest, most ignorant piece ever to be published, so much so even The Telegraph has hit a new low with this warmongering demonizing piece.

Moving on to another mockery of journalism by the German DW entitle: “Iran: Raisi is dead but oppression lives on” where DW allegedly reported that believe or not Marwa, the millions of Iranian public who took to the streets to mourn the passing of their own head of state where forced to do so.

https://tinyurl.com/56exfdyx

Look at to this for instance:

“In a country where there are no real polls and free elections, they are forced to seek legitimacy in crowds around coffins," exiled Iranian journalist Mohammad Javed Akbarin commented in an online post. The right to free assembly, according to Akbarin, is not guaranteed to all Iran's citizens.”

So DW now refuses to see the 25 million Iranian humans who took to the streets of just a few of their governorates to pay their respects to their fallen head of state but would rather print a piece lying about something so obvious while quoting a social media post from a supposedly exiled Iranian whom we have no evidence if he really is exiled or if he really is Iranian to begin with.

No surprise whatsoever in seeing how western mainstream media reacted to the martyrdom of President Raisi and his comrades but it was rather shocking to see to what level these puppet media machines are ready to stoop when it comes to demonizing Iran at every chance they get.