In the bizarro world of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran is winning its war with Israel. He treated with derision President Trump’s call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender,” and instead has threatened the Americans that if they help Israel in any way in the current war (meaning bombing the nuclear facility at Fordow,) then Iran would strike American forces in the region and America “would suffer irreparable harm.” Perhaps he is not delusional in the strict sense. Instead, argues Yonah Jeremy Bob, Khamenei is simply being fed false information by his advisers. More on this possibility can be found here: “Khamenei may be fed false data about war, could lead to IDF blunders, longer war – exclusive,” by Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2025:
Hearing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei give his proud, bombastic, and threatening speech on Wednesday, many global listeners might have had a double take about how the “supreme leader” could try to sound like he is an equal to Israel militarily, and possibly even to the US, and as if nothing has changed in the world since Jerusalem started tearing apart his military power base on Friday of last week….
A more diabolical and stunning explanation may be that Khamenei is being lied to by some of his top advisers – those who have not yet been killed – and that he actually believes the Islamic Republic is doing much better than it is.
If so, this would not be the first time he may have been lied to at a crucial turning point for the region regarding lofty matters of war and peace….
Some of those advisers were likely killed in the last six days. But others, and others like them who still want a longer fight with Israel and may not care about the impact on Iranian civilians, or who are afraid of telling Khamenei the truth of how bad things are – see Egyptian intelligence during the Six Day war fancifully telling their President Nasser that Egyptian forces were invading Tel Aviv as the IDF was tearing them apart – may be intentionally misleading him again.
He may really not know. That speech today may be what he really thinks.
If so, it would behoove top Israeli officials to take into account the possibility that crushing Khamenei and Iran’s willingness to continue this war may be far more difficult than it would be with a rational actor who actually has accurate data about how badly he is losing.
The worry is that Khamenei, if he is being deliberately misinformed by his closest associates who want him to continue the war, believes that Israel is losing, that Iran is winning and that he has no need to consider re-entering negotiations or to agree to that “unconditional surrender” that Trump now demands. How many more targets need to be hit by Israel, how many more nuclear sites and ballistic missiles and missile launchers need to be destroyed, how many hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of Iranians need to flee Tehran, for the Supreme Leader to finally understand that Iran is being battered from pillar to post, and that if he wants to save the regime and his own life, he will have to agree at once to that “unconditional surrender” that he has so far dismissed?
He may not get that chance. After Iran’s attack on the Soroka Medical Center, Defense Minister Israel Katz compared Khamenei to a “modern Hitler” and stated that “the objectives of the war are to remove the nuclear threat, eliminate sources of destruction, and neutralize missile threats. Within this framework, the IDF has been instructed and knows that to achieve all the objectives, without question, this man should no longer continue to exist.”
Khamenei will not be allowed to live. That’s not a threat. It’s a statement of fact.
Namer says
He sounds like the Ayatollah Biden. There is an excellent chance he has dementia.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
You beat me to it! It would have been like if Baghdad Bob had been Saddam Hussein
Transmaster says
Word is the US knows exactly where he is. The United States will leave his elimination up to Israel. From opposition Instagram channels from Iran, the massacre of enforcers of Islamic law, according to the mullahs, is still in progress.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, we don’t need to be for regime change. Even Israel just needs to assassinate him, & major members of the Iranian government, and then step aside. The Iranian people can then step up, overthrow what’s left and start building anew
Thinker1 says
Let’s call him, Tehran Timmy.
Transmaster says
The Iranian Rial is taking a beating as well.
The price of US dollar today, Sunday 22 June 2025, is in the 930,000 Rial market, which has decrease 8,000 Rials (0.85 percentage) compared to the previous day. Each unit of US dollar is sold at the price of 938,000 Rials.
Westman says
The Crystal Ball says “maybe” Khamenei will soon plan travel to France expecting to be allowed exile for a period before returning like Ruhollah Khomeini to adoring followers. Would the French host another jihad troublemaker after experiencing their own internal Islamic troubles?
Meanwhile it looks like open season on the Supreme Jihadi has begun. Will Las Vegas have betting odds on whether Israelis or Iranians win the hunt?
Wellington says
Bizarro world? I submit (not meant in an Islamic kind of way) that the entire Islamic religion lives in a gigantic Bizarro world that has no relationship to ultimate reality and it has been this way from Islam’s inception in the 7th century AD down to the present time.
Nothing fake in man’s history has had a longer life than Islam. Instructive how foolish so many of our own species can be. All that head banging for centuries, and giving rise to an untold number of zebibahs, was for absolutely nothing and thus demonstrative of how mankind at its worst (e.g., believing in Mo’s warped creed) is indeed a “tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.”
gravenimage says
Is the Supreme Leader Being Lied To?
…………………………………….
Probably. Not only is Islam based on lies, but would *you* want to tell the Ayatollah that the hated Americans–and Jews!–are kicking Iran’s *ss?
Lady at the lake says
Well, they did the same kinda thing to dementia joe
Lady of the Lake says
Well they lied to dementia jor
Tim gallagher says
This knuckle draggers khameini never would have known anything worthwhile in terms of modern knowledge. All this moron would ever have known is Islamic bullshit. He would say, oh, that’s against Islamic law, off with his or her head. Apart from that sort of shit, nothing functioning inside his skull.
abu taleb says
Of course Khamenei is lied to, among liars, they lie to each other. So Khamenei lies and being lied too just like every body.
Joe1 says
Khamenei’s worst enemies are not Israel and America but Iranians. Let him be deluded into thinking that the Iranians are behind him. Dictators have to have the military. If part of the military or civilians equal the power of Khamenei’s loyalists, it is game over.
Winston 101 says
Hopefully, the Ayatoilet is about to get flushed, preferably by his own.
I hope Iran has been bombed backed to a republic, pre 1979, with no state religion.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, the previous Pahlavi monarchy of Iran was officially a shi’a islamic state, just like the current regime. Also at the time, 90% of the population was indeed shi’a
However, today, Reza Pahlavi has said that Iran would officially be secular and democratic. That reflects the country, which is now only 30% shi’a, if not less