Iran’s president describes the US conflict as an existing war with a 1982 symbol
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President Masoud Pezeshkian called for one of Iran’s strongest wartime signals on May 24, signaling Tehran’s determination to hold sway against the US and Israel across the region, a counterterrorism expert said.
The Iranian leader’s comments came at an important time in the talks, as President Donald Trump said the deal with Tehran to end the war was “negotiated” and warned the US that it would sign a “big and reasonable” deal or walk away altogether.
While Iran has signed a broad agreement with Washington on some points, it has said that a final agreement has not yet been reached and that negotiations on the remaining details are still ongoing.
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks with Fox News Channel’s Martha MacCallum during an interview in New York City on September 25, 2025. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
In the X text marking the anniversary of the recapture of Khorramshahr in 1982 from Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq War, Pezeshkian said, “Khorramshahr today is Iran, the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that “to resist, sacrifice, and repel this world invasion.”
Analysts say Pezeshkian was deliberately exploiting one of the Islamic Republic’s most deeply troubling targets – a war that has come to symbolize national resistance, civilian sacrifice and irreverence and aggression.
“This is an indication of the Iran-Iraq War, and it’s time,” said Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
May 24 marks the anniversary of the 1982 liberation of Khorramshahr, the southwestern city that Saddam Hussein captured at the start of the war and which Iranian forces retook after months of fierce urban fighting.
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An Iranian flag is placed among the rubble near a demolished residential building near Ferdowsi Square in Tehran on March 3, 2026. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
“This is one of the fundamental mythologies of the Islamic Republic – civilian resistance, mass sacrifice, repelling the ‘invading army.’ That is probably the Great World War to Russia. The move to speak is an extension,” Mohammed told Fox News Digital.
“He maps the defensive war of 1980-82 to the current conflict: Iran was invaded by an aggressor, ordinary citizens (‘untested but brave’) expected to stand and fight, with ‘resistance, self-sacrifice, repelling aggression’ as the cultural default.”
Some of the names, Mohammed said, also evoke volunteers and Basij fighters against a trained invading army. The analyst noted that Pezeshkian’s comment “the line of Hormuz” reflects the general strategy of Iranian escalation.
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and President Donald Trump stand together at an official venue. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
“Putting the strait within the framework of promoting war – even verbally – is a deliberate gesture, not a throat clearing,” he added.
“The Khorramshahr frame is the deepest register the government has. That’s what they reach to show the war at hand, not the problem being managed.”
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Mohammed explained that the post of Pezeshkian X organizes the current conflict from the president’s account to send a “higher message.”
“It also speaks to the internal situation: Khorramshahr, in short, says ‘we are under attack and we will not negotiate,'” he added.
