Farnaz Fassihi

Exactly.

I don't know how these two sides are going to reconcile.

I would say that the overwhelming majority of the population in Iran are opponents of the regime, about 80%, and the core supporters are about 20%.

And I think we can sort of draw this conclusion from voting patterns, right?

In the past couple of years, when there's been presidential elections or parliamentary elections, Iranians who are hardcore believers of the regime have gone to polls around 20 percent.

It's been 20 percent of the population.

Right.

We can, I think, draw from that.

And also like in January, literally every small and big town all over Iran saw protests against the government, including the religious sort of strongholds of the government where there were lots of people out calling for the end of this Islamic regime.

If we look at the demographics of the protesters who were killed in January, they're from all ethnic groups, from a large geographic area in Iran, and different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Mr. Khamenei is the second supreme leader of Iran.

The first was founding supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei.

He came to power in 1979 after the Islamic revolution that toppled the monarchy.

Mr. Khamenei succeeded him in 1989.

And it is said that while the first supreme leader led a revolution, Mr. Khamenei led a state.

He really is the ruler who made sure that the Islamic Republic went from a revolutionary idea into a state that entrenched power.

The Islamic Republic of Iran that we know today that has influence over proxy militant groups and, you know, has a nuclear power and missile and military power was all the vision of Mr. Khamenei.

Not only was he the religious leader of Shias around the world, but his Iran would also be this country that led anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism.

Exactly.

Exactly.