July 23, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Beware Iran’s New Ruling Elite
The country’s recent military humiliation opens the door for hard-liners who won’t compromise on their nuclear ambitions.
July 23, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Beware Iran’s New Ruling Elite
The country’s recent military humiliation opens the door for hard-liners who won’t compromise on their nuclear ambitions.
Excerpt
All wars have consequences, particularly for the vanquished. For the Islamic Republic of Iran, the 12-Day War—its recent conflict with Israel and the U.S.—hasn’t been a soul-scorching, society-rending fight in the way of the Iran-Iraq War. From 1980-88, hundreds of thousands perished and battlefield trauma nearly cracked the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the theocracy’s indispensable pillar. But that conflict did offer an opportunity for Iran: The struggle led the regime to build institutions that guaranteed the revolution’s survival.
The 12-Day War, by contrast, has weakened the heads of those institutions substantially and looks likely to launch a new generation of leaders. That’s bad news for Israel and America.
Mr. Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.