This is John Batchel, a conversation with colleague Benham Ben Taliblu of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy

about the threat made by the Ayatollah within these last days to launch another strike on Israel,

undetermined strike. In other words, ballistic missiles or cruise missiles, Benham entertains that seriously.

The Ayatollah means what he says. He goes on to describe the capability of Iran, and it's

understanding that this is existential. He also mentions its nuclear program. Benham-Taliblu.

Is there another strike coming from Iran?

I would say the sum of this response is affirmative.

More of this tonight.

Listen, this is an Ayatollah who means what he says.

He certainly has a ultra-hardline constituency, not in the people, but in the regime that he has helped create,

preserve, and protect. After all, this is one person whose title is meant to be taken rather

literally, Supreme Leader, and indeed he sits atop this apex, this apparatus, repression

at home and aggression abroad. And Haminaine himself was the one who inched the

regime along and followed a whole host of hardline commentary that first tried to downplay the

success of Israel's military retaliation against Iran's ballistic missile barrage, and then began to hedge

about it, then talked about, you know, neither maximizing or minimizing the strike,

that officials will respond as they will, and now he's owning the response. So there could be a

response coming from Iran directly. There still are plenty, unfortunately, of unity that the

Islamic Republic has not used against Israel that could reach Israel if fired from Iranian territory.

And then there's always the multi-front proxy threat,

which as we've seen from October 7 to present,

really is more a measure of volume than anything else.

...