Middle East Crisis Situation in Iran

Sources: Khamenei is alive – but the Revolutionary Guard is in control

The latest US and Israeli intelligence suggests that Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive, but that the Revolutionary Guard currently holds the real power in the country, sources told the Jerusalem Post.

“The most likely scenario is that the Revolutionary Guard controls him, rather than vice versa. We will probably know more in a few days,” one of them said.

Khamenei is believed to be injured, but at least willing to carry out some tasks. However, he is said to be nowhere near the centralized power that his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had.

Iranian state media has published some written statements from Mojtaba Khamenei during the war, but neither audio nor video.

Analysis: Iran could next target desalination plants

Donald Trump now seems to be looking for a way out of the Iran war – which he has called “a little excursion” – despite the fact that many of his war goals have not been met, writes David E Sanger for the New York Times.

“And there are increasing indications that [...] the consequences of Trump’s ‘excursion’ will be longer-lasting than his interest in it,” he continues, mentioning, among other things, fuel prices and the dispute with allies over the Strait of Hormuz.

As usual, Trump’s messages are contradictory – he says he is ready to “step down” while sending thousands of troops to the Middle East, writes Sanger.

The Iranian regime’s main weapon is its willingness to escalate the war – and drag neighboring countries into ruin – because they have nothing to lose, writes Patrick Wintour for The Guardian.

Recently, an Iranian government source said that the country still has ace up its sleeve that it intends to bring out at the right time.

“This is probably referring to the Gulf states’ desalination plants, the core of the region’s fragile ecosystem,” Wintour writes.

According to Al Jazeera, the Gulf states’ 400 desalination plants produce around 40 percent of the world’s desalinated drinking water, and the smaller states of Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar in particular are completely dependent on it.