Iran is betting it can outlast the U.S. and Israel by turning the conflict into a prolonged war of endurance. Its strategy is stark: Unleash drones and missiles, cut vital energy routes and jolt global markets hard enough to force Washington to blink first.
Despite the shock of U.S.-Israeli strikes and the loss of key figures, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is firmly in control, directing the battlefield, executing preplanned contingencies and dictating strategy and targets in the war.
The IRGC also played the decisive role in elevating Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes.
"For them, they are waging an existential fight. This is an all-out war," said Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics. "They believe their very survival is at stake.
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