What if Khamenei died in his bed and Trump did not kill him?

If Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had died in his bed, from illness or old age, his death could have been more dangerous for the Iranian system than many people think. A natural death would have opened a sensitive moment inside the regime: Who replaces him? Can the elites agree? Will the succession process split the leadership? And will the opposition seize the moment and push the street toward larger protests? This scenario “an internal crisis after a natural death” was closer to what Iran’s opponents wanted. But here is the irony: what Trump and Netanyahu did by killing the Supreme Leader did not weaken the system the way they expected. It saved it from its hardest internal test.  A […]