Sure thing but President Pezeshkian's hands are tied and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) undermining him as well and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei thinks! he can rule his empire forever
Beirut: Fearing war, unsettled at home, Iran weighs retaliation against Israel
Iran seeks to project a show of force while avoiding a regional war, a task that has become more difficult after its first direct attack on Israel, which occurred in April 2024
Extracts: newly elected Masoud Pezeshkian is Iran’s first reformist president in nearly two decades and he had campaigned on greater engagement with the West, hoping to ease the burden of sanctions imposed by Washington and its allies
A regional war would further isolate Iran and deepen its economic crisis Over the past 10 months, the value of the Iranian rial has repeatedly hit record lows
Pezeshkian also ran on moderating the enforcement of the country’s mandatory dress code for women Now many Iranians are calling on him to act
But Pezeshkian’s first weeks have been dominated by phone calls to foreign counterparts and fears of regional escalation
Iran “supports peace and security for all countries across the globe,” Pezeshkian said in a call Sunday with the president of the European Council, according to a summary published on state media. But Pezeshkian added, “any move threatening peace in any part of the world should be halted.”
Iran seeks to project a show of force while avoiding a regional war, a task that has become more difficult after its first direct attack on Israel, which occurred in April 2024
At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ahmad Khatami, an imam allied with hard-liners, suggested that Iran’s delay in responding to the Haniyeh killing was strategic: “We keep the authorities of the Zionist regime in a state of anxiety,” he said. But analysts say it also highlights Iran’s own anxieties at a delicate moment of political transition
A response from Iranian intelligence could take the form of attacks on soft Israeli targets overseas, such as embassies, said Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA senior operations officer who served in counterterrorism roles in the Middle East
“I don’t believe the Iranians have the reach to hit Israeli security officials, for example, on Israeli soil,” he said –- Nailed it! only Hamas can and did....
