This is John Batcher speaking to my colleague Ben and Ben Talibou a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of democracies

about the threat by the Ayatollah to directly attack Israel.

And what is the risk? The risk is enormous for the population, but importantly,

the Ayatollah is self-interested. He's 85 years old, and succession struggle is ahead of the Iranians once the IATOLA joins his ancestors.

Therefore, is he calculating this direct attack on Israel and the counterattack in terms of succession.

Mention for a long time is the son of the Ayatollah much to buy to succeed.

Is he at risk if the Israelis counterattack?

What kind of risk?

All of that in Benham's comments about the Ayatollah calculating this vowed attack.

More of this tonight.

It's almost impossible to divorce from any major domestic or foreign policy decision coming

out of Iran that the succession crisis, how does anything impact succession?

So naturally the regime does not want to do something that could lead it to

essentially not be around or not be perfectly properly handed off, given that the Supreme

Leader is at this stage of his life.

But also, if you absorb these waves of Israeli attacks

and endure this kind of humiliation,

you may not have secured sufficiently the right kind of regime to hand

off to a successor.

So it's a double-edged sword.