Whatever one may think of Donald Trump, you have to credit him for doing the impossible. Ever since he started the war against Iran on 28 February of 20226, he’s somehow managed to transform the image of the regime in Iran in ways that the world’s top PR specialist could never dream on.
Let’s start with the obvious point. Nobody has ever accused
the clerical regime in Iran of having any measure of humour. I’m old enough to
remember when Salman Rushdie wrote the “Satanic Verses.” The book had the effect
of “P***ing off” Muslim communities around the world and cities like Bradford
and Birmingham were up in arms. Then came Iran’s then “Supreme Leader,” the
late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who proceeded to offer a million pounds for
the death of Mr. Rushdie.
The late Ayatollah scared people. As far as many of us
living in the Western influenced world were concerned, he was the very reason
why very old men with major religious influence should be kept far away from
the levers of power. His regime was so scary that when Saddam Hussein invaded
Iran in the early 80s, the entire Western world rushed to support Saddam.
Iran’s “Mullahs” had such a bad reputation in anywhere
influenced by the West that any opponent looked good by comparison. All of us
were trained to think of Iran as a miserable place run by Old Men with no
humour.
Fast forward many four decades later and the Mullah’s are
now proving themselves to be exceptionally good and messaging. When Donald
Trump and Bibi Netanyahu decided to bomb Iran during Ramadan, they set of a
chain of events that has basically upended everything. Sure, Iran has taken the
heavier beating. The US and Israel are the superior military force and as Clausewitz
says “God is on the side of big battalions.” However, despite being the weaker
military force, the Iranians have hit back in a significant enough way for the
GCC, which has traditionally looked to America as a protector to rethink
things.
More importantly, the Iranians have shown themselves
to be much better at basic communications than the US and Israel, two states
that have practically invented modern Public Relations. The communications out
of Iran has been so good that even people who were brought up to think of Iran
as a miserable place are actually applauding them.
The spokespeople on the Iranian side have been
measured and rational. Unlike, say Donald Trump, who has been going on TV and
talking about how Iran’s capabilities have been totally destroyed as Iran
launches strikes against US bases. One can’t help but be reminded of the same
lack of communication strategy during Covid, when America’s death toll
resembled what of a Hollywood depiction of a third world country than a highly
advanced state just as the White House was claiming everything was under
control.
Iranian spokespeople by contrast have been rational
and dare I say factual, presenting themselves as rational people placed in an unrationed
situation.
Contrary of the early days of the Iranian revolution,
the regime has been exceptionally good at using humour. One only has to think
of the Lego videos mocking Trump and Company:
That’s too the Western Audience and as someone said on
Tik Tok, it’s no coincidence that they chose to hold the late Ayatollah Ali Khameni’s
funeral on the 4th of July and America’s 250th Birthday.
The second bit of propaganda mastery that they’ve
displayed was the use of Qur’anic verses that were played for the various
delegations that attended. Every delegation, it seems got a verse on the views that
the regime must have held towards their guest. Observers could not help but
notice that the verses for the delegations from Hezbollah, Hamas and the
Houthies were noticeably more upbeat that the verses the Saudis and Lebanese
government got:
Everyone across the Muslim world is paying attention. The conflict has now become about religion or at least the interpretation of it. You cannot say that you were “snubbed” in the traditional sense of the word but they’ve managed to frame their side of the story in religious terms. They can say “we never said anything, it was just a recital from the Holy Book, which we both find sacred.” How the rest of the Islamic World reorganises its relations with Iran is left to be seen.
Iran’s rulers are not nice people in any sense of the
word. They are, contrary to their propaganda, not Saintly. However, thanks to
this war and the mishandling of communications on the side of the West led by
the USA, shown themselves to be very good at the communications aspect. The funeral
of the late Ayatollah has been a master stroke of propaganda and not the message
of a nation that’s taken a hammering.
