Khamenei Thinks He Can Ride This Out

Russia and China can buy Tehran time but not a deal.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seated, smiling and waving. September 11, 2025, 12:43 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

For years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and ultimate powerbroker, has been insisting to his people that there would be no war with the United States or Israel. That claim was shattered when more than 1,000 Iranians were killed in June’s 12-day war. Now he warns against the country sliding into a “state of ‘no war, no peace.’” The diagnosis isn’t wrong—but refusing to confront hard choices is vintage Khamenei.

Rather than signal a strategic rethink, his latest reshuffles merely paper over factional rivalries. And instead of pushing ha

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