'Massive security failure': Iran vows revenge after biggest attack since 1979 revolution
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00:00 Well, we're going to talk a bit more about this now with Friends24's Doug Herbert.
00:03 Doug, no confirmation yet on who concretely is behind these attacks, but what's clear
00:07 is that it was a massive security failure.
00:09 Absolutely.
00:10 And there's quite a bit of signs of outrage within Iran itself that what is perceived
00:15 as a security failure, because this is the worst single most deadly incident since the
00:20 Iranian Revolution, really, you go back to 1979, and that it is seen as a failure of
00:26 both Iran's government security services and intelligence services, but also the services
00:33 of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, of which the man whose tomb
00:39 engraved these pilgrims who are all visiting, Soleimani, was the head before he was killed
00:45 four years ago in a drone strike launched, ordered by Donald Trump.
00:50 Look, right now what we're seeing is a lot of finger pointing, as you said, and a lot
00:54 of government figures are lashing out directly at the default enemies who are always going
01:00 to be Israel and the United States.
01:02 It works politically, it works ideologically, and in the absence of any concrete evidence,
01:08 it's an easy go-to accusation.
01:12 The problem with the accusation is that there's really very little evidence to suggest, to
01:18 point directly to Israel.
01:20 It isn't obviously, it's easy to blame Israel in these cases.
01:25 Israel has in the past targeted, had targeted assassinations of Iranian, both military figures,
01:32 scientific figures, nuclear scientists, and that is one of the reasons why both US intelligence
01:38 experts, other Western intelligence experts looking at this say that this attack, a mass
01:44 terrorist attack killing civilians, you know, the numbers were over 100 yesterday.
01:49 They've been sort of revised downwards a little bit since then by government officials, but
01:54 it's still massive killings of a terrorist, very blunt, brutal bombing attacks are not
02:00 the typical calling cards, as you will, of the Israeli, of Mossad and Israeli security
02:06 forces.
02:07 This is why they say more likely, and obviously it's speculation, Jeannie, because like we
02:11 say, no one's claiming responsibility yet.
02:15 So far, maybe never will.
02:16 The Islamic State group in the past has staged these types of attacks.
02:22 Recently last year, August, 2023 at Shiraz at an Iranian mosque.
02:28 Before that in the, in the autumn of 2022, there was a similar attack against Iranian
02:32 mosques.
02:33 Unlike this time, there have often been rapid claims of responsibility by ISIS.
02:38 So we haven't had any claims yet, which doesn't mean it isn't ISIS or some other perhaps minority
02:44 or ethnic group that is opposed to the regime, because let's not forget, this was very much,
02:49 the target was very much embodied the ideals of the Shiite majority regime and its clerics,
02:54 its theocrats.
02:56 So anyone launching this type of attack is clearly trying to send some sort of message
03:00 and perhaps also take advantage of what is an extremely febrile moment right now, not
03:04 just in the Middle East, but Iran as well, because Iran's seen as, even though it will
03:08 deny it a lot of the time, as the proxies for a lot of these militia across the regions,
03:12 whether Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or its own militias in Syria and Iraq.
03:17 So this attack happened at a commemoration ceremony for the slain General Soleimani,
03:21 who was a very symbolic figure in Iran.
03:23 Give us a sense of who he was and his importance.
03:25 Yeah, you don't get more revered and more symbolic.
03:28 He was literally referred to as a living martyr, even while he was, while he was alive, you
03:32 know, before he was killed.
03:34 He was the man who was seen as the architect, is what has become now sort of the, the trademark,
03:40 the signature foreign policy of Iran, which is to project its influence across the Middle
03:45 East through this sort of access of allied proxy militias, if you will, militias that
03:51 we've talked about a lot in recent, recent weeks and months, militias based in Syria
03:55 and Iraq, militias, obviously Hezbollah, the very powerful armed force based in southern
04:01 Lebanon, more powerful than the government there, and obviously Hamas itself.
04:05 Now while Iran has vehemently, and let's not forget the Houthis in Yemen, who have been
04:09 launching those attacks against the Red Sea shipping.
04:13 Now obviously Iran will continually deny that there are any direct links of support between
04:18 it and these groups, but the vast overwhelming majority of evidence does point to Iraqi support,
04:24 logistical intelligence, arming, financing, you name it.
04:29 And the problem here is Soleimani embodied all of that because where this happened, Kerman,
04:33 his native city, where his tomb is located, it was also sort of in a sense a focal point,
04:39 a crucible of the regime itself and all of the values of the regime.
04:43 So by striking here, whoever is behind these attacks was clearly trying to send some message,
04:48 whether they simply want to destabilize the government in power in Tehran and show that,
04:52 you know, those security failures we were talking about before make them look vulnerable,
04:57 or whether somehow they were also, it was, you know, Israel or an outside force attacking
05:01 Iran directly.
05:04 They couldn't have chosen perhaps a more appropriate, in a grim sense, target.
05:09 It was both the head, the Al-Quds head, Soleimani was based there.
05:13 It was the crucible of recruitment for Al-Quds and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,
05:17 and it was a place seen as an ideological, if you will, and political rampart for the
05:21 theocratic regime based in the capital, Tehran.
05:24 Doug, thanks for that.
05:25 REST24 is Doug Herbert.