Revealed: Iranian regime’s biggest fear about Khamenei

A senior Iranian official expressed concern that the isolated 86-year-old could make “extremely dangerous” choices.

By World Israel News Staff

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is being forced to make critical decisions without the input of his circles of advisors, many of whom have been assassinated by Israel, leading analysts to fear a dangerous “miscalculation” regarding the ongoing war.

Without advice from his trusted confidants, Khamenei is increasingly making important decisions without external perspectives or expert advice, which a senior Iranian official told Reuters could lead to the 86-year-old making “extremely dangerous” mistakes.

Since the outbreak of the war last week, Israel has killed several key figures who served as prominent advisors to the Iranian leader, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami, intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi, and the head of Iran’s ballistic missile program, Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

While Khamenei has the ultimate say over all official Iranian government decisions, the leader — who has been in power since 1989 — is known to rely heavily upon the advice of his advisors.

“Two things you can say about Khamenei — he is extremely stubborn but also extremely cautious. That is why he has been in power for as long as he has,” Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington, told Reuters.

“Khamenei is pretty well placed to do the basic cost-benefit analysis, which really fundamentally gets to one issue more important than anything else: regime survival.”

Crushing blows to one of Iran’s strongest proxies, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, has also left Khamenei feeling unmoored, analysts said.

Before the outbreak of the war, Khamenei adopted a hardline stance in negotiations for a nuclear deal with the United States, claiming that Iran would never agree to stop enriching uranium.

“Independence means not waiting for the green light from America and the likes of America,” Khamenei said in early June, during a speech announcing he had rejected a US proposal for a deal.

“Who are you to tell us whether we should have a nuclear program or not?” he added.