Some days they talk. Some days they fight. Iran and the United States have settled into a pattern since the truce signed last month. This Wednesday in Doha… they’re sort of talking. Both sides present in indirect negotiations. Whatever comes of that, the attention’s now shifting to Tehran, where the Islamic Republic’s preparing for Friday’s kickoff of four days of state funeral proceedings for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei with the regime boasting of a growing list of foreign dignitaries, a show of strength for a regime that’s more than rebounded since Khamenei was killed on the very first day of the war. A funeral intended as a victory lap for a leadership that’s always revered martyrdom? Definitely.
But does that mask the reality that the Iran war’s resulted in a lose-lose situation? And with Khamenei’s son and successor yet to show signs of life, who really is in charge? Are we also witnessing the funeral of a theocracy, replaced instead with a military dictatorship? More broadly, how will the masters of Tehran deal both with a region that’s working on how to bypass its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and a population that still has to grapple with corruption, rampant inflation and the cruel legacy of the New Year’s crackdown on protests that left untold dead or imprisoned?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Riham Mahir, Charles Wente.
