{"id":334324,"date":"2025-07-17T09:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T08:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=334324"},"modified":"2025-07-17T09:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T08:21:17","slug":"khamenei-breaks-silence-in-bid-to-shore-up-a-fractured-base-after-12-day-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/khamenei-breaks-silence-in-bid-to-shore-up-a-fractured-base-after-12-day-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Khamenei Breaks Silence in Bid to Shore Up a Fractured Base After 12-Day War"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Iranian regime’s Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei addresses the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during a high-level meeting with judicial officials on July 16, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his second public, non-televised appearance since the 12-day conflict, the clerical dictatorship\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, delivered<\/a> a carefully choreographed speech on July 16, 2025, aimed squarely at addressing a deepening crisis of morale within his own ranks. Speaking before the judiciary leadership, Khamenei attempted to reassert authority and portray survival as victory\u2014but the subtext of his remarks betrayed a regime rattled by fear of collapse. The judiciary, now explicitly tasked with executing a full-scale crackdown on dissent, has become a central tool in the regime\u2019s strategy to suppress unrest before it resurfaces.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the transcript published on his official website, Khamenei declared, \u201cThe enemy\u2019s calculation was that by attacking some figures and sensitive centers of Iran, the system would be weakened… then, by deploying sleeper cells\u2014ranging from hypoc<\/span>rites [the regime\u2019s pejorative to defame the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization<\/a>] and monarchists <\/span>to thugs\u2014they would provoke people into the streets to finish the regime off.\u201d He insisted this \u201cplot\u201d had failed and that \u201cthe exact opposite happened.\u201d But this insistence on regime survival, repeated throughout his remarks, reveals not triumph but anxiety: Khamenei is acutely aware that the regime has once again come perilously close to being overthrown.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the bombast lies a much more fragile reality. Khamenei\u2019s unusual decision to appear in person\u2014despite credible security risks\u2014was not an act of strength but necessity. His core concern is the morale crisis within his own apparatus, particularly after a war that exposed vulnerabilities in the regime\u2019s military, intelligence, and command structures. As his own words indicate, the regime feared a post-conflict uprising, activated by the PMOI-led Resistance Units<\/a>, which Khamenei singled out by name.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Khamenei Orders Parliament to Fall in Line Amid Crises Facing #Iran<\/a>\u2019s Theocracyhttps:\/\/t.co\/TzzdhXnSdc<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 12, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n