World War 3 panic: Iran targets US and Israel by burning their flags as tensions rise

In Iran’s largest flag factory, business is experiencing a rapid rise. Workers sell thousands of US and Israel flags a month in their busiest periods – typically when demand is as high as the current tensions playing out in the Middle East. In the town of Khomein, young men and women print the flags by hand and hang them up to dry, all before they’re bought, burned, and the whole process repeats.

Some 2,000 Israel and US flags are sold each month during peak periods, such as the present-day, this amounting to more than 1.5million square feet of flags each year.

Diplomatic tensions between the US and Iran are at breaking point.

They reached the highest levels in decades after top Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a US drone strike in Bagdad earlier this month.

The move prompted Iran to retaliate with a missile strike against a US base in Iraq just days later.

State-sponsored protests have seen thousands take to the streets to voice their outage over the US’ actions.

It is here that demonstrators regularly burn the flags of Israel, the US and Britain.

Ghasem Ghanjani, who owns the Diba Parcham flag factory, said: “We have no problem with the American and British people.

“We have a problem with their governors.

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“This is the least that can be done.”

Hardliners have for years sought out anti-American sentiment among the people.

For them, it plays central role in Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the rhetoric of the nation’s clerical rulers in denouncing the United States as the Great Satan.

Things took a surprising turn last November, however, when many Iranian’s took to the streets to protest not the US, Britain or Israel, but the top authorities of their own country.

They chanted: “Our enemy is not the U.S., our enemy is here.”

Separate mass gatherings erupted earlier this month following the assassination, as video footage taken from a helicopter showed millions turning out for the funeral Mr Soleimani.