Iran Marks War Anniversary Amidst Crucial US-Iran Peace Talks

Tehran, Iran – The anniversary of a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025 is being marked this week in Tehran, as American and Iranian officials engage in last-minute negotiations to end a more recent conflict between the two sides.

Tehran and Washington have signalled that a deal to shift a rocky 60-day ceasefire to a more comprehensive peace and cooperation agreement is close.

But amid the ongoing uncertainty over the outcome of these talks – and in particular the potential for Israel to sabotage them – Iranian cities are hosting commemorations for the dozens of senior military commanders killed between 13 to 24 June 2025.

Some of those killed in the 12-day war, known in Israel as Operation Rising Lion, include Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of armed forces, Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Ali Akbar Hajizadeh, the longtime aerospace chief.

State-orchestrated messages and banners have cast the commanders as eschatological figures and “end-times companions” of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad whose death more than 1,300 years ago has become a fundamental tenet in Shia Islam’s emphasis on “martyrdom” and resistance to injustice.

Universities will also host state-run commemorations for the nuclear scientists and physicists assassinated during last year’s war, such as Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi.

More than 1,000 Iranians were killed in the US-Israeli 12-day bombing campaign, including several hundred civilians and dozens of children, while at least 3,468 people have been killed, close to half of them civilians, in Iran’s current war with the US and Israel, according to government figures.

Among those killed on February 28, the first day of the latest war, was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, it was announced on Saturday, will be buried at a Shia shrine in Mashhad at the end of six days of proceedings during the second week of July.

It has been a very bloody and costly 12 months for Iran, but one that the government has portrayed as a necessary struggle to ward off foreign domination.

Speaking to state television on Friday night, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described how the country had refused to buckle to US demands after the 12-day war – such as zero nuclear enrichment taking place on Iranian soil – and this resolute approach to maintaining the country’s sovereignty should continue.

“The negotiations did not lead to war, resistance led to war. Our enemies had demands that they tried to reach during negotiations, we resisted, they turned to war,” Araghchi said.

But despite the losses and damages, the government believes it is in a more superior position compared with last year.

It has survived two wars against the US and Israel and effectively took control of the Strait of Hormuz – through which, before the war, approximately a fifth of the world’s oil passed – to disrupt global energy markets.

The chief justice of Iran, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, said that US leaders have yet to understand the ideology and perseverance of the theological establishment in Tehran, which is prepared to make more sacrifices.

The Islamic month of Muharram begins June 16 and includes the Day of Ashura, which commemorates the death of Husayn and an important date in the Iranian calendar. Mohseni-Ejei said it is the “month of the victory of blood over the sword” and that the Iranian armed forces were fully prepared to continue to fight the “evil” of the US.

IRGC Brigadier General, Ali Fadavi, appears to agree, telling state television during a commemoration event on Thursday that Iran’s military operation against Israel last year “broke down the hollow might of the enemies”.

Ali Abdollahi, commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the IRGC, also claimed that Iran had been victorious during its recent confrontations. “By God’s grace, the world will soon hear the resounding victory of Iran and the Iranian people, and the triumph of the resistance over the aggressor and terrorist enemy,” the general wrote in a statement released on Saturday.

As Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif said on Saturday afternoon that an interim agreement with US President Donald Trump may be finalised in the next 24 hours, while Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said a US-Iran memorandum of understanding could happen in the “coming days”.

Members of the ultra-hardline Paydari faction have blasted the conditions of the agreement currently circulating in local and international media, but which have not yet been officially confirmed.

Among the points of contention are whether Iran will receive frozen overseas funds, the status of the Strait of Hormuz, and the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Some Iranian hardliners are comparing the alleged leaks to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, agreed under US President Barack Obama, that curbed the nuclear programme in exchange for lifting of sanctions, which they saw as a “pure loss” for Iran. They insist that the government must push for stronger demands to paint a “victory” narrative when the war ends.

One member of this bloc, Mahmoud Nabavian, a senior cleric and member of parliament, warned on Saturday that Iran was about to make more concessions than in previous talks and that the new agreement looks “more damaging compared to the two prior versions”.

A state television host grilled Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei during a phone interview on Friday night, comparing the US to a “snake” that is always ready to undermine negotiations.

“I think you are showing too much sensitivity in your literature. The issue is do we want results when we enter a diplomatic path or not?” Baghaei responded.

Still, even the most conservative outlets in Iran have signalled that an interim deal is now close, and some see the talks as a necessary evil to prevent further harm for the country.

“Even if odds are success are low for the negotiations, the cost of not trying it may prove more than trying it,” the IRGC-affiliated Javan newspaper published on Saturday.