Trump's fiasco: Younger Khamenei is in power in Iran instead of the elder Khamenei

The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran’s slain leader Ali Khamenei, as the new supreme leader is an “act of defiance” signaling regime retaliation will continue, a Middle East expert has said, CNN quotes.

“It’s an absolute act of defiance,” former adviser to the Pentagon Jasmine el-Gamal told CNN’s Becky Anderson. “It is a message to the Trump administration, to the Israeli prime minister, that Iran is not backing down; that it does not intend to surrender.”

“This really pits the US and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other,” the analyst said, adding that, while the Gulf region is “bearing the brunt” of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, the elevation of Mojtaba is an indication that “further escalation” should be expected in the coming days.

But el-Gamal emphasized the divergence of objectives likely to emerge between the US and Israel as the conflict impacts the nations and their leaders differently.

“The Israelis have stated very clearly that their objective is absolute regime change,” the expert said, adding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t back down until he can claim he has “decimated this regime irreversibly.”

“The US president doesn’t really need to say that he’s done regime change,” el-Gamal noted, adding Trump is navigating significant economic pressure at home that could force him to soften his approach. “He just needs to say, ‘I degraded the capabilities of this regime enough that we can leave them be for now.’”

The Iranian martyrs killed by the Americans and Israelis — Khameneni, Raisi, and Soleimani — are being resurrected along with the spirit of the Iranian people. Their enemies will pay for their murders!
Pic.: publics

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