Morale: Khamenei Loses Everything
Ezoic
February 22, 2025: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85 year old ruler of Iran has lost much in the past 18 months. The Israelis destroyed Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Iran has also lost influence inside Iraq. This is mainly because Iran is ruled by a religious dictatorship that condones aggressive interference in neighboring countries. Iraq has long been the main recipient of this meddling. Iran has long sought more economic and political influence in Iraq.
This is made easier by Iraq’s internal problems from corruption. Historically what is now known as Iraq was seen as the most corrupt region in the Middle East, if not the world. Despite that, a growing number of formerly pro-Iran Iraqis have changed their minds. The current Iranian government has been an economic, diplomatic and military disaster for Iran. Few Iraqis want to emulate Iran and this now includes Iraqi members of pro-Iran militias. To encourage and maintain these pro-Iran attitudes, the Iranians supplied militiamen with weapons and regular cash payments.
Growing economic problems inside Iran have reduced the money needed to keep those Iraqi militiamen loyal, so they aren’t. Iraqis were also put off by the brutality Iran used to suppress the hijab protests that began two years ago and only began to diminish a year later. The corruption by the clerics who run, or just support, the government has grown as the economic problems most Iranians must endure have increased.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/2025022204959.aspx#gsc.tab=0
