[IranAlert] State Media in Iran Call Israeli Diplomats' Killer ‘Basij Comrade’

This is the NUFDI IranAlert—concise, timely analysis offering unique insights into breaking news and major developments inside Iran. Each short brief provides a fresh angle, highlighting trends, reactions, and overlooked internal dynamics shaping Iran and the Islamic Republic.

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State Media in Iran Call DC Murders ‘Welcome Start’ and Perpetrator ‘Basij Comrade’

The Islamic Republic’s state media has shed its initial hesitation and is now celebrating the “elimination of two Zionist animals” in DC as a “welcome start” while calling the assailant a “Basij comrade.” The Basij is a militia controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  The same message has been repeated by the state broadcast and the Supreme Leader-controlled daily Kayhan.

State Broadcaster TV Channel 2 (IRIB2)

The regime’s state broadcaster, IRIB2, last night aired an item lionizing Elias Rodriguez, the terrorist who assassinated two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, DC. The video argues that social media posts and street protests are “not enough” and encourages American youth to “turn courage into bullets.” The item was aired during a program titled Navasan (“Vibration” in Persian). The official website of IRIB2 lists Qasem Avaz Beigi as the program’s director and producer. It also lists the hosts as Mohammad Hossein Khadem Al-Husseini, Sajjad Hashemi, Mohammad Tadi, and Borna Danesh. Danesh is a dual citizen of Iran and the United States and a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas. In addition to IRIB2, he works for foreign-facing English-language Press TV and Ofogh TV channels. The same video was later shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the official account of Fars News Agency, controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Video script:  “Elias Rodriguez was a young man who loved American cinema and music. Maybe when he was making a documentary about Black heroes, he couldn’t even imagine that the blood of heroes would run so strong in his veins that it would turn into bullets in his gun that would eventually land in the heart of Zionists from the Israeli embassy in DC. But Rodriguez had already made up his mind. He had more backbone than his President, who over the past few months had said that anyone who whispered a word about Israel would be choked silent. The American police have been ordered to choke silent all, all American youth. But Rodriguez was fed up, fed up with the silence about the murder of humans, the silence in the world. The solution to this global shamefulness was not social media posts and tweets. Protests on the streets of Washington were not the answer to this rage and pain. The slaughter of 50,000 humans had made it fitting that someone take revenge in the heart of the land of the crime. ENGLISH AUDIO. It was time for someone to raise his voice, someone to say, “Open your eyes.” And he did. ENGLISH CHANT. He had made up his mind [to act] so he would be able to hold his head high when in the afterlife he would face starved and martyred Palestinian mothers and their children.”

Print Media: Khamenei-controlled Kayhan, IRGC-Controlled Javan

The Supreme Leader-controlled Kayhan front-page shows Elias Rodriguez with the title reading, “Revenge for Israel in the heart of the United States. An American youth executes Zionist diplomats.” In a separate piece, the Supreme Leader-controlled Kayhan called the terror attack “sending two rabid Zionist animals to hell,” and added, “It was a good start favored by Allah. With this revolutionary act, the Washington branch of the Basij (IRGC-controlled militia) has declared its creation.” The piece also called Rodriguez a “Basij comrade.” The Supreme Leader-controlled Kayhan, celebrating this week’s terror attack in Washington, threatened that the next target could be Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. IRGC-run Javan daily wrote, “Even the U.S. has become unsafe for Zionists.” It argued that “global anger over the unending crimes of Zionists has surpassed religious lines and street protests and turned into acts of violence.” Hardline Vatan Emroz carried the headline “Revenge of Elias,” in a piece on the perpetrator of the attack, Elias Rodriguez. The paper describes the terror attack as a “defeat for the American security services.” Read more about Tehran’s initial reaction to the terror attack here on NUFDI’s website.