Lise Doucette

Even now, last night, he was asked by CBS News about the future.

And he said, well, now this opens up a possibility for diplomacy.

So he keeps everyone guessing.

And this is not the time to leave everyone and most of all the people of Iran guessing.

I think it's not a time for optimism or pessimism.

It's a time just to keep an eye very closely on what happens not just day by day but hour by hour.

This is a very unpredictable and a perilous moment, not just for Iran but the region and beyond.

He'd suggested when his name was first proposed for the role that he wasn't worthy of it.

It was reported last year, even before the 12-day war, that Ayatollah Khamenei had already instructed the body known as the Assembly of Experts to prepare for any eventuality, including his assassination.

And at the time, the New York Times reported that a short list of at least three possible candidates had been drawn up,

so that when the moment came, they would be able to move swiftly to ensure there was no vacuum.

And of course, these preparations took on added urgency when Iran saw, even in the first wave of attacks last year, that Israel was able to assassinate, on the first night alone, nine nuclear scientists, top security chiefs.

And now there is a new war and the assembly of experts will be poised to move into action to choose a new supreme leader.

And there has been speculation for many years over who could possibly replace Ayatollah Khamenei, the second supreme leader since the Iranian revolution of 1979.

And among the possible successors has been the name of his son, Moshe Baal.

But there are many who say, no, that simply cannot be possible because in Shia Islam tradition, you don't have that kind of anointing with some member of your own family.

I think it would be a big leap to think that the change of one individual would mean the end of the regime.

It would be change in the regime.

But once it's been announced that there is a new person in charge, whatever the orientation of this cleric, and he's certain to be a conservative cleric, his overriding objective will be absolutely the same.

And that is the survival of the Islamic Republic, the survival of clerical rule and the continuing power of