Fresh from striking an American air base and then agreeing to a cease-fire with Israel, Iran claimed victory on Tuesday morning, saying that its attacks had pressured Israel into accepting a truce.
“Defeat of the Zionist enemy,” ran the chyron on Iran’s state TV network as it broadcast news of the agreement Tuesday morning. State news agencies published a statement by the Iranian national security council saying that Tehran was “imposing a cease-fire” on Israel by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar and other targets.
The 12-day war began with a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on Iran that wiped out much of the Iranian military’s top brass, and destroyed its air defenses and some of its nuclear and missile facilities. Subsequent Israeli attacks killed hundreds of Iranians, including children. And American airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites damaged, or may have destroyed, key parts of the country’s nuclear program.
Still, Iranian officials were casting the outcome of the conflict as a resounding triumph for Iran and a decisive loss for Israel — a positive spin on what officials privately said was a face-saving effort to retaliate while avoiding an unwinnable all-out war with the United States.
In public, the tone was swaggering, emphasizing Iran’s response: first, Iranian missile barrages into Israeli towns that sent Israelis ducking into bomb shelters, destroyed buildings and killed 28 people; then, the missile strike on Monday on the installation in Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, which left no casualties.
A retired Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps naval commander, Gen. Hossein Alaei, told ISNA, a state news agency, that Iran had been able not only to withstand Israeli attacks but also to hit targets in Israel and then launch an attack of its own devastating enough to force the United States to retreat.
“In such circumstances, the warmongering Trump chose to accept a cease-fire and rein in the bloodthirsty Netanyahu,” he said, according to ISNA, referring to the American president and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Despite losing its top commanders, Iran proved it still had the capacity to strike Israel, General Alaei said. He added that the United States had entered the war only because “it became clear that Israel was unable to defeat Iran.”
Tehran had “forced the enemy to regret and accept defeat and unilaterally stop its aggression,” the statement from the Iranian national security council said. It praised the “dazzling power” of the military, adding that Iran’s attacks had proven that its forces “will be ready” to respond “to any act of aggression by the enemy.”
The government controls or restricts news outlets in Iran and has tightly limited internet access during the war, allowing little beyond its own message to filter into the country. Still, it is unclear how many Iranians — many of whom despise their theocratic leadership — will buy the official version of events. Although there has been widespread grumbling, mainly on social media, about the regime’s handling of Iran’s security, Iranians have also excoriated Israel and the United States for attacking their country.
On social media on Tuesday, some Iranians expressed hope that the fear and destruction would finally end, while others remained cautious, saying that it was not clear whether the cease-fire would hold. They also posted about their worries that the conflict would cause the government to crack down harder than ever on domestic critics. Only hard-line supporters of the regime were echoing its triumphal statements.
Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo.
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