{"id":345093,"date":"2026-05-15T19:47:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=345093"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:51:33","slug":"defeated-at-all-fronts-irans-regime-banks-solely-on-psychological-warfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/nuclear\/defeated-at-all-fronts-irans-regime-banks-solely-on-psychological-warfare\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeated at All Fronts, Iran\u2019s Regime Banks Solely on Psychological Warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Basij
Basij paramilitary forces patrol the streets at night amid heightened security crackdowns across Iranian cities \u2013 July 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Five-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The terrorist regime of Iran projects an image of defiant strength: a self-proclaimed superpower setting maximalist terms in negotiations, trolling Western audiences on social media, claiming dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, and issuing threats against Gulf neighbors. Yet the facts\u2014drawn from the regime\u2019s own officials, state\u00a0media\u00a0and parliamentary records\u2014tell a different story. Militarily degraded after a 40-day war, politically fractured, socially\u00a0exhausted\u00a0and economically on the\u00a0brink<\/a>,\u00a0Tehran survives by inflicting and prolonging pain. Its only real strategy is psychological warfare: manufacturing ch<\/span>aos abroad in the hope that Western fatigue will force\u00a0sanctions\u00a0relief and acceptance of its\u00a0terms.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Propaganda Targets Western Economic Pain to Erode Resolve<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has turned to English-language posts on X<\/a> to target Western audiences directly, mocking the notion of war \u201cmaking what great again\u201d and cataloging its costs: inflation, unaffordability and the enrichment of a narrow elite through conflict profiteering. Other officials echo the theme, portraying Iranian regime’s so-called \u201cresistance\u201d as the cause of higher global energy prices and disrupted shipping lanes. The intent is unmistakable\u2014to amplify legitimate Western anxieties about fuel costs, supply chains and household budgets until calls to end the pressure grow irresistible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not casual commentary. It is calibrated information warfare from a regime whose own citizens have endured a nationwide internet blackout now<\/a> in its 77th day and exceeding 1,824 hours, the longest nation-scale shutdown on record. While ordinary Iranians, shut out even from the regime\u2019s privileged \u201cwhite SIM cards\u201d priced at 44 million to 120 million toman, must instead scrape together what they can for black-market proxies and VPN configurations just to reach the unfiltered internet, regime figures lecture the West on the price of confrontation. The contrast exposes the hollowness of the exercise: a leadership cut off from its own people yet desperate to shape opinion thousands of miles away.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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"On the morning after the ceasefire, every exhausted and exasperated mind, long numbed by the #IranWar<\/a>, will turn instinctively toward the search for real change and the practical means to bring this regime to an end." https:\/\/t.co\/8Tmh0Sl0Kc<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n