00:00So, John, that leads me into my next question, because Israel's defense minister says the military would have killed Khamenei during the war if the opportunity had presented itself.
00:12So has this weakened the authority of the supreme leader? And is there any possibility of a direct challenge to his rule inside of Iran?
00:23That possibility is always there. I mean, there are two schools of thought on this, right?
00:28There's the sort of regime change school of thought, the hardliner, the neoconservative Israeli school of thought, the school of thought that is adopted by much by certain segments of the Iranian diaspora, as well as elements within Iran, which is that simply with enough pressure, with enough outside intervention, there are ways to make the regime implode under its own unpopularity that you just need to kind of keep pressing your case.
00:52There is another school of thought on this that says that actually in moments of foreign assault, foreign intervention, the Iranians, for the most part, are going to rally around the flag and are less likely to want to be seen joining in opposition efforts or efforts to undermine the regime that might come across as if they are, either inadvertently or not, as if they are somehow allied to Israeli or American interests.
01:17I think both of those have a grain of truth to them, but I think that the center of gravity in Iran is still going to be towards a sense of patriotism and self-defense and nationalism.
01:29I think that, of course, I think that, of course, the regime is far less popular than it has been probably at any point in its history, but it still has a bedrock of support.
01:37And there is still a kind of silent, I won't say majority, but there is a significant chunk of the Iranian population that is not ready to go out and risk life and limb to kind of foment another revolution, particularly at a time when the Israelis and the Americans are attacking.
