The Iranian Regime Doubles Down

"President Trump may have hoped the elimination of the Islamic Republic's longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would produce an Iranian Delcy Rodríguez—a pragmatic insider who would capitulate to American pressure—but it has instead spawned a budding Iranian Kim Jong Un. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, will succeed his father, making the Islamic Republic a hereditary dictatorship poised to double down on ideology and repression."

"Mojtaba inherits one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Reportedly injured and in hiding, he will lead a government that is simultaneously fighting full-blown wars against the United States and Israel and against much of its own population. He survived the missile strike that killed his father, wife, and mother only because he was in an adjacent room."

"Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 revolution that deposed a hereditary monarchy to establish a theocracy, called hereditary succession a 'sinister, evil system of government' that 'has no place in Islam.' Like the pigs in Animal Farm, the Islamic Republic's leaders have become a dynastic ruling class presiding over a system of privilege and repression far more egregious than the one they overthrew."

The American and Israeli military campaign against Iran achieved tactical success by degrading the Islamic Republic's warmaking capabilities, but failed politically by consolidating regime unity. Mojtaba Khamenei, age 56, will succeed his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, transforming Iran into a hereditary dictatorship. Mojtaba survived the missile strike that killed his father, wife, and mother, and the regime rallied around him to ensure continuity. However, this succession contradicts the revolution's founding principles, as Ayatollah Khomeini explicitly condemned hereditary succession as incompatible with Islam. Mojtaba faces enormous challenges leading a government simultaneously fighting external wars against the United States and Israel while suppressing internal dissent.

Read at The Atlantic