What is the Impact of 12-Day War on Iran – its Leadership and People?
Karan Thapar in an interview with Vali Nasr.
What is the impact of the 12-day war on the country's leadership? And, in particular, on Ayatollah Khamenei's control of the country? Will there be a reckoning? Could a struggle to succeed him start? And what about the Iranian people? How do they view their government?
In an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Vali Nasr, a Majid Khaddouri professor of international affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and the author of Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History, answers these questions. Nasr talks about Iran's isolation from the western world and if they could face another wave of the war with Israel.
On the question how concerned Iranians are, currently, given the ease and efficiency with which Israel eliminated nuclear scientists and penetrated the Iranian system, Nasr says, "Very concerned".
"Actually, Iranians are shocked, embarrassed and offended by the intelligence puncture. They hold the government responsible," he says, adding that "by and large, the sense is: a national security vulnerability [has been] exploited by the enemy – which Israel is, the enemy, now."
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