Amir Taheri
Gatestone, June 22, 2025
“the overall mood in Iran, including in the ruling circles, is against Khamenei’s “to the last drop of blood” posturing, if only because people know this is posturing from a leader who is personally secure in his hideout.”
After a week in purdah, “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei broke his silence on Wednesday with a brief and enigmatic message recorded in his current secret location.
Well, the location may be secret to most of us but not to Israel and its US ally, who claim they know where the “Guide” is hiding.
This was a strange message.
At no point did the “Guide” admit that Iran was facing a major crisis.
He spoke of “an imposed war” without specifying who imposed it and how, while implicitly claiming that Iran had no part in provoking it.
In other words, if he doesn’t know why the war was imposed, he can’t pretend to have any idea how to end it. Instead, he seemed to wish the war to continue ad infinitum by pretending that the US was demanding Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” something that, he boasted, the Iranian nation shall never accept.
By making the US the principal target of his real or fake ire, Khamenei hoped to minimize the humiliation of having suffered a bad beating at the hands of what he likes to describe as a “midget” with dreams of grandeur.
The fact, however, is that the US has not declared war on Iran and thus cannot see “unconditional surrender” as its goal. True, President Donald Trump put the phrase UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER on his social media account (in capital letters) like the “think of” notes one posts on the refrigerator in the kitchen…..SOURCE