Iran holds pro-government ralliespublished at 11:28 GMT
11:28 GMT
Ghoncheh Habibiazad & Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verify & BBC Persian
Iran held pro-establishment rallies across the country yesterday, attended by thousands. BBC Persian has seen text messages inviting people to take part in these events.
State TV channels this morning continued to praise the “high turnout” at the state-organised rallies yesterday.
The Fars news agency, which is close to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that around three million people had participated in yesterday’s march in the capital Tehran in support of the establishment.
But this figure has been disputed by foreign-based Iranian fact-checking platform Factnameh.“This figure is implausibly exaggerated, and it can be stated with confidence that the actual number was several dozen times lower,” it said on its X page.
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,
People gather at Enghelab Square after a government call to rally in Tehran
A number of online users also questioned several photos shared by state TV and pro-government agencies of crowds in Tehran’s Enghelab Square, claiming that they were old and dated back to crowds at the funeral of top Iranian commander Qasem Solemiani who was assassinated by the US in January 2020.
But reverse search indicates the photos are recent, and we were able to match them with aerial videos of yesterday’s rally broadcast by state TV.