'Nobody Knows What to Do About the Future'

"Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared total victory. "Without a doubt, the Iranian nation defeated the Americans and the Zionists in the 12-day war," he said triumphantly on November 26. "They failed to achieve any of their goals." Speaking a day earlier, Hassan Rouhani, a former president and a rival of Khamenei, recommended instead that Iran stop underestimating its adversaries and focus on using diplomacy to deter another war."

"But appearances can be deceiving. The war dealt a harsh blow to Khamenei. For decades, the leader has congratulated himself on keeping Iran out of direct conflicts. But the past two years have seen the fall of one Iranian ally in the region, the Assad regime in Syria, and Israel's battering of two others, Hamas and Hezbollah. Then came the June bombardment, which Khamenei spent hiding in a bunker; this cost him the respect of many in the Islamic Republic."

Two senior Iranian figures offered sharply different assessments after summer Israeli and American strikes. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaimed total victory, asserting the nation defeated American and Israeli aims. Hassan Rouhani urged abandoning complacency, warning Iran remains in 'no war, no peace' and calling for diplomacy to restore security. Khamenei retains formal authority, while Rouhani lacks office and was recently barred from running for a supervisory body seat. Military setbacks, the fall of allied regimes, Israel's attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah, and Khamenei's bunker retreat during the June bombardment eroded the leader's standing and empowered rivals within Iran's factional establishment.

Read at The Atlantic