FO° Exclusive: Iran's Mullahs Are Now in Trouble

User is not logged in.
SAVE

In this segment of FO° Exclusive, Atul Singh and Glenn Carle discuss why recent developments in Iran are significant regionally and globally.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is no spring chicken. At 84, intimations of mortality are nigh. Should Khamenei’s faculties wane and were he to die, a power struggle will ensue. There is no clear line of succession. Hence, contenders will inevitably jostle for the throne.

This struggle will cause cleavages within the ruling elite. There is a real risk of civil war. Already, rising discontent has brought thousands out on the street. Young people, especially young women, have revolted bravely and chipped away at the edifice of Iran’s Islamic state.

Tensions in Iran are increasing. Even as literacy has risen, jobs are few and economic hardship is on the rise. The Islamic regime is struggling to meet the expectations of the people. Furthermore, a large number of young people are turning more secular and sometimes even irreligious. If the Islamic Republic’s elite fractures, the mullahs’ grip on power will inevitably slip and Iran might experience yet another revolution.

The foreign policy ramifications of these developments is immense. The US still characterizes Iran as a destabilizing power. However, Iran has lost its revolutionary fervor. For the last 25 years, Iran has no longer been the expansionist threat that it originally was in 1979. However, Iran’s hardline Shia regime still remains obsessively anti-Israel and supports groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

If there were to be a regime change, it is plausible that Iran’s fraught relationships with many of its neighbors could improve. This includes not only Jewish Israel and Satanic US but also Sunni Saudi Arabia and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

[Anton Schauble wrote the first draft of this piece.]

The views expressed in this article/video are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

FO° Talks: An Indian Foreign Secretary Makes Sense of Multipolarity

July 22, 2023

FO° Talks: Rank Hypocrisy: Do Global Rankings Misrepresent India?

July 19, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Distressed China Plays Nice With US for Now

July 16, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Narendra Modi’s Consequential US Trip

July 13, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Big Drama in Russia-Ukraine War

July 12, 2023

FO° Live: Making Sense of the Turkish Elections

FO° Exclusive: Water Is Becoming Dangerously Scarce

June 19, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Iran’s Mullahs Are Now in Trouble

June 17, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Turkey’s Erdoğan Is Now Sultan

June 16, 2023

FO° Talks: Semiconductors and Indian National Security

FO° Debate: Is the Focus on ESG a Good or Bad Thing?

June 05, 2023

FO° Shorts: An Inventor Now Seeks to Turn the Tables on Apple

May 16, 2023

FO° Exclusive: The Great Balancing Game in the New World Order

May 14, 2023

FO° Exclusive: The Latest 2023 US Intelligence Leak Is Dangerous

May 11, 2023

The Religious Roots of the Russia-Ukraine War

FO° Live: Ukraine, Climate Change and Polycrisis Implications for the Future

FO° Debate: Is ChatGPT a Good or Bad Thing?

May 04, 2023

FO° Debate: Are New Bank Bailouts Good or Bad Economic Policy?

May 02, 2023

FO° Explainers: What do Italians Think About Immigration

April 28, 2023

FO° Exclusive: Global Banking Turmoil

April 15, 2023

 

Fair Observer, 461 Harbor Blvd, Belmont, CA 94002, USA