Published by the Atlantic
At the end of November, two aging clerics gave speeches in Tehran reflecting on the lessons to be drawn from the summer’s Israeli and American strikes on their country. The contrast between the men’s visions shows just what sort of pickle Iran now finds itself in.
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. “Unfortunately, we are still in the state of ‘no war, no peace,’” he said before a group of his former cabinet ministers. “There is no feeling of security in the country.”
Read more with this gift link