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MOJTABA KHAMENEI: STOOGE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS, By Ali Ansari (@aa51_ansari)
A theory is currently making the rounds that the war has made Iran ‘more hardline’ — and, if not for the US-Israeli bombs, the Islamic Republic might have appointed a moderate leader.
The notion that the Revolutionary Guards are only now making a bid for power is, frankly, risible. In fact, their rise to dominance as a political-military conglomerate has long been in gestation.
Under the ideological mentorship of the uncompromising authoritarian, Ayatollah Misbah-Yazdi - a mentor to Mojtaba Khamenei - the hardliners developed a framework for the seizing of power, centred on cult of personality.
For Misbah-Yazdi, the Supreme Leader was far more than a constitutional position — it was a sacred calling, a pillar of belief against which one’s identification as a true Muslim could be defined. Adherence to the constitution of the Islamic Republic became a sacred duty, and to challenge it was heresy.
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