The Iranian provincial capital Ahvaz on the Persian Gulf is a stronghold of the opposition. In recent months, citizens have repeatedly demonstrated here against the regime in Tehran.
But now the streets are full of people who commemorate one of the regime's key representatives: Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Brigades, who was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad last Thursday. Video recordings from Ahvaz from the weekend show funeral marches that extend to the horizon.
US President Donald Trump wanted to weaken the Iranian leadership with the attack on Soleimani. For now, however, he has achieved the opposite: the people largely gather behind the regime. In the capital, Tehran, several million people attended the funeral service for Soleimani on Monday, authorities say.
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Iran is divided into Islamist hardliners and reformers, pro and anti-Western forces, young and old. For months, citizens across the country had taken to the government against the government. They opposed political authoritarianism and above all called for economic reforms and an opening of the country. The regime reacted brutally. At least 1,000 people were killed by security forces, and thousands were arrested. The repression only increased the outrage.
Now the protest movement has suddenly stopped. The various social groups are united in their anger at the United States. "The killing of Soleimani was, in a way, a gift from Trump to the mullahs," said Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth.
Soleimani was the face of Iran in the Middle East. He controlled Tehran's policies in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The general played a key role in keeping dictator Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria. He was jointly responsible for the deaths of countless civilians, for terrorist attacks and the destabilization of foreign countries, and cultivated the aura of an almost mystical warlord. Soleimani was seen by many Iranians as a man who was above politics.
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Head of state Ayatollah Ali Khamenei uses the death of his top general to secure his own power. The regime stages the mourning for the killed Quds Brigade leader with great pomp. Soleimanis coffin is transported from city to city. Khamenei himself said the prayer for Soleimani in Tehran on Monday.
For a while, Trump's predecessor Barack Obama looked like the arch enemies of the United States and Iran could move closer together. Together with the Europeans, Obama negotiated a nuclear deal (JCPOA) that would give Iranian leaders a chance of easing sanctions if their nuclear program were scaled back.
Trump's exit from the JCPOA in May 2018 has already shaken the relaxation process. After the killing of Soleimani, rapprochement between the two countries is almost impossible for years to come.
Moderate forces in Iran that argue for a dialogue with the West have become massively on the defensive. Ajatollah Khamenei may find it even easier to discredit criticism of his rule as treason. The attack on Soleimani is "the worst thing that could happen to the civil society movements in Iran and Iraq," said New York Times' New York Times expert Amir Rashidi.
The problems that plague Iran, and which have driven hundreds of thousands of people to the streets in the past, will not change in the foreseeable future: the Iranian economy - including US sanctions - is on the ground, and many citizens are struggling to survive. This drama is now overlaid by the conflict with the United States.