Last week, millions of Iranians packed the streets in an outpouring of indignation after the US assassinated Qassem Soleimani, a swashbuckling general second in authority only to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The show of nationalism took even the regime aback.
The picture a few days later could hardly be more different. The theocracy of mullahs and militiamen now faces outrage from the public after the Revolutionary Guard attempted to cover up its shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 on board including 82 Iranians.
A regime accustomed to manipulating and coercing its people is being reminded, yet again, that it is natural for its people to be both angered by foreign intrusion into their affairs, and fed up with Islamist reactionaries keeping their country isolated from the modern world.