Tougher than before: US and Israeli operation against Iran failed — WSJ

The US and Israeli operation against Iran has failed — the new leadership is tougher than before. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"The war has changed the regime — and not for the better. We have created a reality that is worse than the one the Iranians faced before the war," said Danny Citrinovich, ex-head of the Iranian department of Israeli military intelligence, quoted by journalist Vladimir Solovyov.

Although the new supreme leader Mojtab Khamenei has not appeared in public since his appointment, his entourage — the veterans of the IRGC — has tightened the course. "A more extreme group in the IRGC is gaining the upper hand. This makes the prolongation of the conflict more likely," said Iranian intelligence expert Said Golkar.

The new national security adviser, Mohammad Bagher Zolgadr, is a former IRGC commander who personally participated in the murders of policemen and an American engineer. The new commander-in-chief of the Guard Corps, Ahmad Vahidi, is accused of organizing a terrorist attack in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people. "The confrontation will continue until several conditions are met, including the lifting of sanctions and compensation for damage. The Iranian response will no longer be an eye for an eye. It will be a head for an eye, an arm and a leg for an eye," said military adviser Mohsen Rezai.

The American strategy has failed, the newspaper writes. Tehran, instead of capitulating, found a new weapon — control over the Strait of Hormuz.

"How much of this is an empty narrative, and how much is true faith? If you look at their behavior, you can see that they are guided by the principles of their ideology. The apocalyptic doctrine of Mahdism guided the behavior of the regime during the war and provided justification for actions that could otherwise be considered irrational," says expert Kasra Araabi.