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These historical traumas contribute to Russia’ s current reluctance to intervene militarily on an extensive scale. For example, its intervention in Syria, initiated in September 2015, was primarily aimed at supporting Bashar al-Assad’ s regime and securing its strategic assets, notably the Tartous naval and Hmeimim air bases. Despite the recent fall of the Assad regime, Russia, already engaged in the war in Ukraine, has been able to do little to save it, prioritizing its military and diplomatic resources for this major conflict. Similarly, in the recent conflict between Iran and Israel, Russia, like China, did not intervene directly, in contrast to the American air strikes on Iran.
Flashmag! Issue 162 July 2025
Iran, for its part, bears the deep scars of the Iran-Iraq war( 1980-1988), a conflict that resulted in millions of victims and massive destruction, forging a national memory of the war’ s horrors. For many Iranians who lived through the war, the recent strikes have revived traumatic memories of the bombing of Tehran. This conflict, which pitted religious Iran against secular Iraq, was a“ dirty war” with few images and references( Gaïdz Minassian, 2013). Thousands of teenage Iranian soldiers were sent to the front, some with a small key around their necks that was supposed to open up paradise( 2018). This practice, though refuted by veterans as a Western media invention, symbolizes the manipulation of faith in the mobilization for martyrdom( 2018). The cost to Iran has been enormous, with around a million casualties, the use of chemical weapons and the death of teenagers. The economic cost of reconstruction has been estimated at $ 300 billion. This experience has led Iran to adopt a“ diplomacy of nuisance”, using unconventional levers against its adversaries. The Iranian population, in general, does not want war, and many Iranians were angry at their government for its failure to protect civilians during the multiple attacks on Iran
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