Khamenei's Reign: Balancing Act Ends?

0:00It's February 28, and this episode is brought to you by NordVPN. If you use public Wi-Fi or care about your privacy online, NordVPN helps keep your N.DS. Connection. Secure across all your devices. Links in the episode description. And now, here's what's happening across the UK. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has guided the country for more than three decades since 1989, blending ruthless control. With careful strategy. The 84-year-old cleric first appeared publicly in five years back in October 2024, vowing resistance against Israel. Now, after recent U.S. and Israeli strikes hammered his secure compound, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Khamenei might no longer be. Alive, though Iranian officials have not confirmed anything. Khamenei rose from humble roots in the shrine city of Mashad, influenced by radical Shia thinkers and anti-Western ideas in the 1960s. He organized protests against the Shia, survived an assassination attempt that caused him

1:04use of an arm, served as president, and stepped up as supreme. Leader after Ayatollah Khamenei's death. During his rule, he strengthened the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as his power base, crushed to scent, and built a network of proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas to challenge Israel and the U.S. without full-scale war. He tolerated some reforms under presidents like Muhammad Qatami, but always protected the regime's core ideology, even amid economic woes, and protests. Lately, setbacks piled up with the killing of Hezbollah's leader, strikes on Iran's nuclear program and the fall of Syria's Assad regime. His access of resistance crumbled under Israeli attacks, leaving proxies offering only words, not action, as internal unrest boiled over. Even if Khamenei survives, experts say hard-line revolutionary guard figures will likely succeed him, signaling the end of his long balancing act. Between ideology and survival.

2:04Of course, he is trying to loose his skills, especially following a Однакоism Theory