WANA (Aug 15) – Mohammad-Javad Tajik, CEO of Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, has announced that a site outside Tehran’s urban limits has been prepared for the temporary burial of U.S. military personnel in potential wartime scenarios. He said the measure is part of crisis-management plans and preparations for exceptional circumstances.
Speaking on a television program, Tajik said the designated site has a capacity of approximately 5,000 graves. He stressed that the measure is not merely a media initiative or psychological operation and that the site has in fact been prepared outside the city of Tehran.
Tajik said the organization is required to plan for various crisis scenarios, including the possibility of foreign military forces entering Iranian territory. Accordingly, arrangements have been made for the management, temporary storage and, if necessary, burial of the remains of foreign military personnel.
According to Tajik, locating the site outside Tehran’s urban boundaries is also part of this planning. Referring to historical experience, he noted that the remains of foreign military personnel had been buried inside cities in some previous periods, while the current approach is to designate specific sites outside urban areas.
He added that in scenarios such as a ground assault or airborne operation resulting in a large number of casualties, Behesht-e Zahra would need to have the capacity to manage the remains. In addition to burial facilities, he said temporary storage capacity in morgues has also been taken into consideration.
Tajik emphasized that these preparations do not mean that a war or the entry of U.S. forces into Tehran is considered inevitable. Rather, he said, they are part of routine contingency planning and crisis-management measures.
He also explained why images of the site had not been released, saying that publishing further visual details could lead to emotional or inaccurate interpretations, which was why the organization had refrained from releasing photographs.
Reports about the preparation of the site had previously circulated, with some describing it as merely a media or psychological operation. Tajik reiterated during the program that the burial site had, in fact, been prepared.