How Iran's Regime Changed...for the Worse

**Ryan Knutson** (0:05)
When the US and Israel began their war with Iran, one of the main goals appeared to be regime change. And the campaign began with a high-profile assassination.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:16)
Iranian state media has confirmed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has been killed in his compound.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
This may change the game completely for Iran, change the region.

**Ryan Knutson** (0:30)
Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old supreme leader, Iran's highest political and religious authority, was dead.
That strike also wiped out many in his inner circle. And over the following weeks, other top Iranian officials were also killed.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:46)
Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, has been killed in- Commander Ghulam Reza Sulemani killed-

**SPEAKER_3** (0:52)
The spokesperson for the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and this is now the fourth major target.

**Margherita Stancati** (1:01)
So, one of the assumptions of the war was that by killing senior Iranian officials, that could pave the way for the collapse of the regime, so that people would rise up and overthrow their leaders.

**Donald Trump** (1:17)
When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:31)
Has regime change happened in the way that the US and Israel hoped it would?

**Margherita Stancati** (1:36)
Absolutely not. In fact, what we have seen is a hardening of Iran's leadership.

**Ryan Knutson** (1:42)
That's our colleague, Margherita Stancati.

**Margherita Stancati** (1:45)
The more extreme elements of the Revolutionary Guards and hardliners in the political system are now much more firmly in control than they were before the war. There has been a change in the regime and it's been for the worse.

**Ryan Knutson** (2:03)
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Monday, April 20th.
Coming up on the show, how attempts to push out the Iranian regime backfired.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:31)
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**Ryan Knutson** (3:06)
The Iranian regime has been a thorn in the U.S.'s side, practically since its formation, almost 50 years ago.

**Margherita Stancati** (3:14)
The Islamic Republic, from its inception, was poised to oppose the US. It started with the hostage crisis in 1979

**SPEAKER_7** (3:25)
Some 60 Americans, including our fellow citizen, whom you just saw bound and blindfolded, are now beginning their sixth day of captivity inside the US. Embassy in Tehran.

**Margherita Stancati** (3:37)
And a key part of the Republic's ideology was this anti-Americanism. And especially Iran's hardliners, they are anti-Western ideologues.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:48)
As far as Iran goes, this is the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

**Margherita Stancati** (3:55)
There's also been this fear, and for Israel it's an existential fear, that Iran could develop a nuclear bomb. And once that happens, it becomes very difficult to do anything about the regime. First of all, it would give the Iranian government enormous power, much more leeway, and it would be incredibly difficult to stop.

**Ryan Knutson** (4:17)
Earlier this year, the US and Israel sensed that the Iranian regime was weak. After a massive popular uprising and a series of Israeli attacks that left Iran's proxies weakened, they decided to strike by taking aim at the country's leadership.

**Margherita Stancati** (4:35)
Iran's form of government is essentially a theocracy, and the ultimate authority lies within the supreme leader. It's a system known as the velayat-e faqi. The supreme leader has the ultimate political as well as religious authority.

**Ryan Knutson** (4:48)
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in that strike at the start of the war. And to replace him, the country's religious clergy held a vote.
The person they chose was Khamenei's son, Mushtaba Khamenei, who before the war, wasn't necessarily considered a leading contender for the job.

**Margherita Stancati** (5:07)
Some analysts say that had there not been a war, the selection of Mushtaba Khamenei would have been a lot less likely. But because his father had been killed, because he was injured, because there was war, it meant that there was more momentum behind him, that choosing him sent a message of continuity and defiance from the political leadership.

**Ryan Knutson** (5:35)
So what do we know about Mushtaba Khamenei?

**Margherita Stancati** (5:38)
So the short answer is that we know very little. He has not appeared in public since he was selected, nor have we seen a photo of him, nor has the government shared even an audio message from him.