Iran leaders join crowds on Tehran’s streets to project control in wartime

• 2026-04-04 27

NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: After more than a month of being stalked by targeted assassinations, Iran’s leadership has adopted a new tactic to show it is still in control – with senior officials walking openly in the streets among small crowds who have gathered in support of the Islamic Republic.

In recent days, Iran’s president and foreign minister have separately mixed with groups of several hundred people in central Tehran. On Tuesday, state television aired footage of the two posing for selfies, talking to members of the public and shaking hands with supporters who had gathered in public areas.

According to insiders and analysts, the appearances are part of a calculated effort by Iran’s theocratic leadership to project resilience and authority – not only over the vital Strait of Hormuz but also over the population – despite a sustained U.S.-Israeli campaign aimed at “obliterating” it.

One insider close to the hardline establishment said such public outings are intended to show that the Islamic Republic is “unshaken by strikes and that it remains in control and vigilant” as the war grinds on.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28 with the killing of veteran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior military commanders in waves of strikes that have since continued to target top officials.

Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in public since taking over on March 8 from his father. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, meanwhile, was removed from Israel’s hit list amid mediation efforts last month, including by Pakistan, to bring Tehran and Washington together for talks to end the war.

Talks aimed at ending the war have since appeared to have petered out, as Tehran brands U.S. peace proposals “unrealistic”. Against that backdrop, recent public appearances by President Masoud Pezeshkian and Araqchi appear designed to project defiance, if not a convincing display of public support.

A senior Iranian source said officials’ public presence demonstrates that “the establishment is not intimidated by Israel’s targeted killing of top Iranian figures”.

Asked whether Iran’s foreign minister or president were on any sort of kill list, an Israeli military spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, said on Friday he would not “speak about specific personnel.”