November 24, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
The Twilight of Ali Khamenei
Iran’s supreme leader is not gone, but his power has been greatly reduced since Oct. 7, 2023.
November 24, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
The Twilight of Ali Khamenei
Iran’s supreme leader is not gone, but his power has been greatly reduced since Oct. 7, 2023.
Excerpt
Despotic regimes have their own way of holding rulers accountable. Show trials and trumped-up corruption charges can bring down leaders who have stumbled. Predatory regimes can also offer some grace to failed icons. The latter is the current predicament of Iran’s 86-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The 12-Day War in June neutered the mullah who had dominated much of the Middle East. With this devastating reversal, his minions are now effectively taking over.
If Mr. Khamenei had died on Oct. 6, 2023, he would be remembered as a successful, history-bending revolutionary. But the Oct. 7 war caught the cleric unprepared, utterly blind to the chain reaction that militant Palestinians were about to unleash.
Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.