During the funeral processions for Ali Khamenei, Javad Mogouei, a state-affiliated interviewer, held a conversation with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on a program titled “Story of the War 2.” The discussion revealed previously unspoken realities surrounding the January protests, which were suppressed with extreme violence at the start of the 39-day war, and the death of Ali Khamenei during the initial hour of the conflict.
In one segment of the interview, Mogouei asked Araghchi, in his capacity as a member of the Supreme National Security Council, whether authorities had anticipated the size of the crowd during the January protests. Araghchi responded with a smile and a simple “No.” Mogouei pressed further, emphasizing that, based on his own subsequent investigations in Mashhad, Donald Trump’s claims were “true” and that the city had effectively fallen for several hours, referring to statements by Trump that no security forces were present on Mashhad’s streets. Araghchi answered: “In any case, we must acknowledge that we had weaknesses.”
Following the controversy sparked by this portion of the interview, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior explicitly denied the fall of Mashhad. Citing communication logs from two officials, he stated that the ministry maintained continuous contact with the governor-general of Razavi Khorasan, adding: “While severe clashes took place in Mashhad, our communications with the city were not severed for even a single moment.”
