Who’s Really Running Iran?

“Every time I would ask that question from sources, I would say, who is making the decisions? Who's running the country? And I would hear Sepah. Sepah means the revolutionary guards. No one said the Ayatollah. No one said it's the supreme leader, and that was just such a difference to how things were done before the war where the senior Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran for thirty seven years, always had the last word on all decisions that were critical to the state.”

“He's had three operations and is waiting for a prosthetic leg. He's had operations on one of his arms and hands, and his face and lips have been burned severely. And the burns are so extensive that he can't even speak properly, which is one of the reasons why we haven't heard his voice or seen his face.”

“Well, because these generals are not as motivated and driven by the cleric ideology that defined Iran in the past forty seven years, sort of the death to America, the religious theocracy. What motivates these generals is power and money. And for both of those things to happen, the regime needs to survive, and it needs to thrive economically.”

“For the first time in forty seven years, the generals have gone to the Americans and said, if there's a deal, your oil and shipping companies can come and invest in Iran. You can help us reconstruct and rebuild. And that's something that's never been done before.”

“They've now discovered that they can control it, that they can even threaten ships by suggesting there are mines at the bottom of the seas. And, of course, insurance companies are not going to risk it, and that alone will upend the global shipping and energy and economy.”

“Iran's foreign minister went to Islamabad, and The US special envoy Steve Witkoff and president Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were scheduled to also fly to Pakistan on Saturday, and everyone anticipated another round of talks. And then we started getting mixed messages. The Iranians said, oh, well, we're not meeting directly with the Americans, and the foreign minister left Pakistan.”

“The incident started when a gunman attempted to storm the annual event where president Trump and senior cabinet officials were in attendance. The attacker ran through a security checkpoint and exchanged fire with the authorities before being subdued and taken into custody. He was armed with knives, a shotgun, and a handgun.”