Iran’s Tryst With Its Future

(Kabir Taneja – Observer Research Foundation) The June 2025 strikes conducted by the United States and Israel against Iran were a pivotal moment in the geopolitics of the Middle East, the undercurrents of which are still reverberating through the region. Recent protests in various parts of the country have brought to the forefront not just the deepening of political crevasses within the state, but the fallout of economic ones as well. Many analysts, such as Ashkan Hashemipour, accurately trace the ongoing discontent to factors rooted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought the then-exiled Ayatollah Khomeini back to power as the West-backed monarchy of Shah Reza Pahlavi was deposed. The current theological leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989, now faces an inflection point on both the identity and sustainability of that Revolution-led definition of the state. While the current protests may have been successfully suppressed, for Tehran to proceed with a sense of business as usual may no longer be viable.

Iran’s Tryst With Its Future