It's all just rhetoric, right? Just propaganda to take the people's minds off the imploding economy. After all, the Iranians can't really be serious about exacting "revenge" on Israel and the United States for killing their beloved martyr, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right?
It is state policy for the Iranian government to pursue "revenge" against the U.S. and Israel. “We pledge to avenge your honored blood and all the martyrs of these two wars from the criminal and shameless murderers," said the possible Supreme Leader of Iran, Khamenei's son Mojtaba, in a statement last July. "This revenge is the will of our nation and should definitely happen.”
In fact, this is the number one reason why Iran can never, ever, come close to constructing a nuclear bomb. Simply put, if they get it, they will use it. And anyone who doesn't believe that has not been paying attention to not only the statements coming out of Tehran and the various factions of the leadership, but also the actions of the Iranian government these past six months.
"Regardless of who wrote this letter, it is now state policy, and Iranian media and officials reflect it," said Middle East Forum's Shay Khatiri.
Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the February 28 decapitation attack on Iran, principalists in Iranian society immediately began to demand revenge for the killing of the Supreme Leader.
“So what happened to the retribution for our martyred imam?” Military cleric Ali Shirazi said, “Avenging [Khamenei] is the main demand of the Iranian nation.”
Four days after Mojtaba’s statement, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, the powerful head of the seminaries who served on the interim Supreme Leadership Council, made clarifying comments on the Memorandum of Understanding and the unresolved issue of Khamenei’s killing: “Asking for revenge and retribution for the martyred imam and other martyrs of the recent two wars is a necessary and certain issue, does not depend on the coming and going of individuals and administrations, and will certainly happen.” Iran’s state policy, therefore, is one of revenge against the United States and Israel—not just individuals—even after Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leave office.
The prospects of a new agreement have revived the issue of revenge. On September 25, 2026, Abolfazl Shekarchi, the senior spokesperson for the armed forces, said, “We will not forgive the murderers of the martyred imam or the children of Minab even after the war, and we will execute their sentences.” Paydari faction journalist Meysam Nili attacked reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian on the same day: “The people of Iran certainly seek revenge and the murder of that yellow pig and drawing the blood of all murderers of the martyred imam and children of Iran,” he said.
"Iran previously sought to assassinate Trump and other American officials for killing General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020," writes Khatiri. "It will continue to do so with greater rigor, adding that Arafi’s comments hint that future presidents will not be immune, either."
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The United States doesn't do well with fanatics. One need only look at how badly our civilian and military leadership dealt with the Japanese and their fanatical bushido honor code. We didn't understand it until 1945, and it cost thousands of American lives.
There is a segment of the American Left that wouldn't mind seeing Iran obtain the technology to build a nuclear weapon. Many of them populated the administration of Barack Obama. Obama's nuclear deal, never fully honored by Iran, made key restrictions on uranium enrichment and centrifuge limits that were set to expire after 10 to 15 years, which many of us argued merely delayed, rather than permanently stopped, an Iranian bomb.
This was suicidal. Today, even some on the right are seeing the war as a drag on the midterm elections and want it ended short of regime change. This would be a huge mistake. Donald Trump is very close to seeing the collapse of the Iranian theocracy, perhaps in a matter of months. No foreign policy success would have more far-reaching effects. It would change the map of the Middle East, tilting it sharply toward Israel and U.S. allies.
Can Trump withstand the pressure from both sides and see the war through to a successful conclusion?
