A joke making the rounds in Iran is that the Israeli airstrike that killed Ayatollah Khamenei at the start of war merely made him decades younger.
His son and successor Mojtaba, observers say, is a more radical version of the father, and wants revenge. President Trump had recently been insistent that he achieved “regime change” in Iran, heralding “much more rational” leaders with whom US negotiators could talk. For all he has said, the “great deal” Trump expected to extract this week from the rational regime has failed to materialise, forcing an extension of the ceasefire.
