Iran faces a moment of historic weakness following Israel’s airstrikes on military facilities throughout the Islamic country on Saturday morning.
As the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism considers whether it will respond to the strikes, a new report suggests that the country’s leader has become gravely ill.
Buried in a report from The New York Times on Saturday was the revelation that intelligence officials believe that 85-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is “seriously ill.”
The report noted that Khamenei’s health was a factor the regime was having to contend with as it weighs the risks of responding to a vastly superior Israeli military.
The country’s economy continues to struggle and a war with Israel would likely result in its oil infrastructure being wiped out, which would crash its economy again.
Israel has also decimated Iran’s top two terrorist proxy groups — Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza — that it has propped up to attack the Jewish State.
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The Israel Air Force (IAF) destroyed key air defense systems in Syria, Iraq, and Iran early on Saturday morning as part of its strike on Iran so that it could operate with impunity over Iranian airspace.
Knowing that it cannot defend itself against a technologically superior foe, Iran “is also dealing with serious domestic dissent over rising prices and its harsh rule, which play into any calculation for retaliation,” the report said.
The report said that it’s because the regime is losing popularity among its citizens that Khamenei “allowed the election of a more moderate president, Masoud Pezeshkian, after the harder-line Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash.”
“Complicating matters, a quiet battle has emerged over succession,” the report later added as it highlighted the reports of Khamenei’s illness.
“With Mr. Raisi gone, there is internal disquiet over the possibility that Ayatollah Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba, 55, might succeed him,” the report said. “The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will have an important say and is considered more willing to confront Israel.”
