On June 7, as reports spread of a tense phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, I was watching the story unfold from an unusual angle. Not on the English wires, but in the Persian-language Telegram channels of Iran’s own state media. What Tehran’s outlets told their domestic audience that day was strikingly coherent, and revealing not so much for its facts as for the story the regime wanted Iranians to believe.

The message, repeated across Tasnim News Agency, Fars News and their affiliates, came down to a single claim: that American diplomacy is not peacemaking but damage control, a shield thrown over an Israel too depleted to keep fighting.

The phone call, retold for a home audience

The dominant story across the channels was the Trump-Netanyahu call, in which the U.S. president reportedly urged Israel not to strike Iran. Notably, Iranian state media didn’t break this themselves. They relayed it through Western and Israeli reporting, citing Axios, which in turn cited an unnamed U.S. official and an Israeli source. The sourcing chain matters: this is Tehran amplifying foreign reporting that flatters its narrative, not original Iranian intelligence.

But the framing layered on top was entirely Tehran’s. Fars News........

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