He’s human after all:
Peeking through Iran’s fog of war
Where’s Khamenei the Younger? He has appeared in public recently as – a cardboard cutout.
I don’t think this is a spoof, although it looks like one:
Reports are that he was wounded in the blast that killed Khamenei the Elder. We don’t know how badly, but that cardboard figure probably isn’t reassuring to his supporters. It gives new meaning to the term “figurehead”:
According to former Iranian news anchor Ehsan Karami, Mojtaba Khamenei has been admitted to Sinai Hospital in Tehran and is currently on a ventilator.
Karami alleged that Mojtaba Khamenei was seriously injured in the airstrikes that reportedly killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on February 28. He further claimed that Mojtaba remains in a coma and is unaware of the outbreak of the ongoing war or the deaths of family members in the bombardment.
Iran’s state television has not confirmed the hospitalization but recently referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as a “Jaanbaz of Ramadan,” a term commonly used in Iran to describe a wounded war veteran, confirming his injury.
I suppose, though, that it would be clever of authorities to appoint someone already deceased as Supreme Leader – then he couldn’t be re-killed.
There’s also this:
A report by The New York Times, citing three unnamed Iranian officials, said Khamenei had sustained injuries during the attacks, including wounds to his legs. Officials said he remained alert but was sheltering in a highly secure location with extremely limited communication.
I suppose it’s theoretically possible they don’t want any recordings that could be traced. But not even audio? Seems unlikely he’s “alert” enough to record a message.
At this point in time, is the IRGC being targeted by Israel and/or the US? It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening, but the IRGC seems to be in power at the moment. Israeli strikes have been reported on IRGC infrastructure:
The Israel Air Force has launched another “wide-scale wave of strikes” against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) infrastructure across Iran on Wednesday afternoon, simultaneously with strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, the IDF said.
In addition, the IDF struck several IRGC infrastructure sites in Tehran and other Islamic Regime military strongholds throughout the country.
Does this include the IRGC personnel?
It is exceedingly difficult to penetrate the fog of this war plus the fog of the MSM – our own, and of course Iran’s. Just to take one example of so many, I saw a link to a CBS article that had the following headline: “Trump vows to end war soon as Iran hits ships, threatens banks, and toll on U.S. forces emerges.” Sounds as though Trump is saying he’ll cry uncle as soon as we sustain losses of any magnitude whatsoever. What is in the story, though?:
— Suspected Iranian drones hit at least three ships in and around the Strait of Hormuz overnight, continuing attacks that have paralyzed traffic through the vital shipping lane despite a stern warning from President Trump.
— President Trump has said again that the war will end “soon,” whenever he decides it should, as Iran says it’s ready for “a long-term war of attrition that will destroy the entire American economy.” Iran also warned that it would start targeting U.S.-linked banks across the Mideast.
— Drones hit Dubai’s airport overnight, wounding four people… The UAE said it was intercepting Iranian drones and missiles, too.
— Approximately 140 U.S. service members were wounded in the first 10 days of the war with Iran, the Pentagon said Tuesday, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. and Israel were “winning” the war and rapidly meeting their objectives.
Quite a difference between the headline’s implications and the article’s details.
Of course, the fear is that Iran has terror cells seeded all over the US and many Western countries, and that these will be activated. That could happen. There are also threats from Iran that it has ships that will attack California:
ABC claims to have read the [police] alert sent out. It says in part:
“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran. We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”
The New York Post describes it as an “army of drones” that could be launched from a vessel off the West Coast of the United States.
Seems to me that if Iran hasn’t done this yet, they might not have the capacity to do it. But it’s certainly troubling. Then again, I think the goal of the MSM is to terrify the American people and spread the word that Trump is endangering us and that Iran is stronger than ever. If he keeps the war up, they’ll say it’s a dangerous quagmire. If he leaves, they’ll say he cut and run before liberating the people. But the goal was always to degrade their missile and nuclear capabilities and kill much of their leadership; that’s already been accomplished. Trump always said regime change was up to the Iranian people.
And the war is apparently still continuing, with Israel and the US determined to keep bombing for at least a few more weeks.
The press and that Iranian school that was reported to have been hit
The press is still reporting creatively about the story, trying to pin it on the US. But the truth is that no one knows who fired the explosive that hit the school, although satellite imagery does seem to show that it was hit. The US and Israel have said there’s no evidence it was them; the US is still investigating. Iran says it was the US – of course.
But the lack of knowledge hasn’t stopped the press; as soon as the hit was first announced, they immediately printed the Iranian claims as though they were true. Now we have this:
The [NY] Times goes to great lengths to try to blame the school bombing on the U.S. military. Headline: “U.S. Tomahawk Hit Naval Base Beside Iranian School, Video Shows.” That’s odd: not that the Tomahawk hit the school, but rather that it hit a nearby military target. So what? The subhed is an outright lie by the Times: “The evidence contradicts President Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for a strike at the school that killed 175 people, most of them children.”
The Times story is based on two sources, Iranian state media and a “research collective” called Bellingcat. It involves painstaking reconstruction of a video that shows a Tomahawk missile hitting its target. The emphasis is on evidence that the missile was indeed a Tomahawk, which is unique to the U.S. military. But so what? This is the key information, which a casual reader of headlines will not catch:
“A Times analysis of the video shows the missile striking a building described as a medical clinic in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base. Plumes of smoke and debris shoot out of the building after it is hit as the distant screams of onlookers are heard.
“As the camera pans to the right, large plumes of dust and smoke are already billowing from the area around the elementary school, suggesting that it had been struck shortly before the strike on the naval base.”
So the Tomahawk didn’t hit the school, it hit the naval base. And the video indicates that at that point, the school had already been struck. By what? We don’t know, but the one thing we know for sure is that it wasn’t the Tomahawk. My guess is that the military investigation will conclude that the school was struck by an errant Iranian missile, but by that time the left-wing press will have firmly implanted the assumption that it was ours.
It’s already been very firmly planted indeed. That’s the goal.
This phenomenon isn’t really new, however. As evidence, we have this quote from General Sherman – the General Sherman of the Civil War:
The American press is a shame and a reproach to a civilized people. When a man is too lazy to work and too cowardly to steal, he becomes an editor and manufactures public opinion.
I don’t think our current press is merely lazy, though. After all, it takes work to write the propaganda they produce, and they perform that task quite well. Their laziness doesn’t go in both directions. They are “lazy” about seeking the truth, but only if it contradicts the political message they want to transmit. Much of the truth does go against their belief system, of course.
In the case of the school bombing, I’m not sure we’ll ever learn the truth. As far as I can tell at this point, having read a great deal of information about it, this is what we know:
The school does seem to have sustained a serious hit, and was certainly in a geographic area where the US was striking. But there is no definitive evidence concerning what hit it or where the ordinance originated. It could have been a US strike or it could have been Iranian strikes gone astray.
All the reports of casualties originate in Iran. Are they correct? We have no way to independently corroborate them. It’s certainly possible they are correct – although, as is so often the case, the number of reported deaths vary. The Iranian authorities might be lying and staging the deaths as the Palestinians so often do, or it might all be true. If the girls really were killed, it is tragic, whoever is responsible.
If I had to guess at this point, I’d say it probably was a mistaken US strike on the incorrect target, and that schoolgirls did die. How sure am I of this? Not at all sure. But one thing of which I am very sure is that the US had no intention of killing schoolgirls. And another thing of which I am extremely sure is that Iran has killed many thousands of innocent people in its own country, and has no hesitation to do so.
NOTE: The MSM continues to outright lie about the recent IED attack by two Muslim ISIS sympathizers on people protesting the “Islamification” of New York. The attack was absolutely NOT targeting Mayor Mamdani or Muslims at all; au contraire. And yet Abby Phillip of CNN characterized it as an attack on Mamdani, as did CNN’s Anna Navarro. Abysmally ignorant, or lying propagandists? I say “both.” Plus, when called out, Phillip “apologized” by saying the mayor wasn’t “specifically” targeted, when in fact he wasn’t targeted at all.
As the sun quickly sets, not on the British Empire – that’s already gone – but on Britain itself
It’s not enough to tear down statues. The British pound will be getting a new look.
A generic one.
So instead of past (or present) heroes to be pictured on future British currency, the pound will henceforth feature wildlife. I wasn’t aware that Britain was famous for its wildlife. No one goes big game hunting there anymore.
Here’s the story. The public seems to have voted for this, and the notes will continue to have the monarch’s face on them:
It marks a shift after more than 50 years of showcasing people from Britain’s history on the banknotes, including Winston Churchill, Alan Turing and Jane Austen.
The Bank of England said the change to wildlife imagery creates an opportunity to celebrate another important aspect of the nation.
It also makes it more difficult for the notes to be counterfeited while making security features more distinguishable, according to the central bank.
I don’t think the change in image theme itself makes the notes more difficult to counterfeit, I think it’s improved techniques connected with the issuance of new notes.
The vote went like this:
The move follows a consultation in which the UK wildlife theme received the highest proportion of nominations, at 60%.
Architecture and landmarks was a close second at 56%, followed by notable historical figures (38%) arts, culture and sport (30%) innovation (23%) and noteworthy milestones (19%).
Obviously, people were allowed to choose more than one theme. The total number of responses was 44,000, which isn’t all that many.
The definition of “wildlife” is broad, however:
A second consultation will be run this summer to gather views on the specific wildlife they would like to feature, which can include plants, landscapes and animals.
So they could choose the White Cliffs of Dover, for example. That would be kind of nice. Or the dandelion – not so nice. As for fauna, I immediately think of the hedgehog. Looking it up, we see the following:
The island of Great Britain, along with the rest of the archipelago known as the British Isles … contains a relatively small fraction of the world’s wildlife. The biota was severely diminished in the last ice age, and shortly (in geological terms) thereafter was separated from the continent by the English Channel’s formation. Since then, humans have hunted the most dangerous forms (the wolf, the brown bear and the wild boar) to extinction, though domesticated forms such as the dog and the pig remain. The wild boar has subsequently been reintroduced as a meat animal.
How about the English Springer Spaniel? A noble beast:
Open thread 3/11/2026
After all that, I thought it would be worth more:
Those plucky ISIS kids
Well, they aren’t exactly kids. But they’re pretty young – eighteen and nineteen years old, children of naturalized citizens from Turkey and Afghanistan. In their copious free time they constructed – or purchased, or were furnished with – an IED, and proceeded to travel from Pennsylvania to NYC to throw the device at some anti-Mamdani, anti-Islamification protesters at New York’s Gracie Mansion.
The MSM has done its best to obscure the facts and make the reader think, at least for a while, that it was the anti-Islamification protestors who threw the bomb. But more about that in a moment.
The two bombers are now in custody. The bombs were serious devices. From PJ Media:
In case you missed it, on Saturday, March 7, an anti-Islam protest gathered outside Gracie Mansion — the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — when two homemade improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were thrown toward the protesters.
The devices contained triacetone triperoxide or TATP, a volatile homemade explosive often called “mother of Satan,” as well as nuts, bolts, and screws. They were ignited but failed to fully detonate, creating smoke and chaos. …
The suspects are 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, both of whom are from Pennsylvania. They were arrested shortly after the incident. Both the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force called it “ISIS-inspired terrorism.”
According to Balat’s statement to law enforcement, he wanted to carry out an attack that was bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing.
Fortunately they weren’t all that competent at bomb-making or at least at bomb-igniting and/or bomb-throwing. At the precinct Balat waived his Miranda rights and wrote the following:
All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds! I pledge my allegience [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar! Emir B.’
Maybe he’s hoping for some of the Mangione/Tsarnaev-type adulation from the young ladies.
And what of the protesters who were the targets? I was driving somewhere yesterday listening to the radio, and when the news came on at the top of the hour, the newsreader described the protesters as “far-right.”
So I became curious: what was actually being protested? It seems to have been not so much Islam as what the protesters call the takeover of New York by Islam. They seem to be quite theatrical; some of their festivities involved a roast pig and a live goat which the organizer, a man named Jack Lang, referred to as, “Mamdani’s second wife.” Lang also was one of the people found guilty for acts committed on J6 and later pardoned by Trump (see this). He also said:
He told a Daily News reporter that he wanted to “stop the Muslim prayers that are happening in New York City.”
“They’re humiliation rituals for the white Christian men in the city,” he added.
Not for the black Christian men? Not for the Jewish men? Not for the white, black, Christian or Jewish women? At any rate, the Muslim calls to prayer in New York are no joke. The situation sounds awful:
A tweet making the rounds this week shows video of the Islamic call to prayer, the Adhan, echoing through New York City streets at dawn. Five in the morning. Amplified. Projected over neighborhoods that still carry the scars of September 11, 2001. That date is not ancient history. It is living memory. …
The United States protects religious liberty. That includes Muslims. The First Amendment is not selective. And it should not be. But freedom of religion is not the same thing as forced participation in someone else’s religious proclamation.
The Adhan is not ambient background music. It is a declaration. The phrase “Allahu Akbar” means “God is greatest.” It is a theological claim. It is a call to submission. Practicing Muslims understand this. That is not controversial. That is simply fact.
As for the teenaged perps, here’s more information:
An automated license plate reader captured the pair entering New York City from New Jersey less than an hour before the attack, according to the complaint.
Their vehicle – registered to one of Balat’s relatives – was discovered Sunday a few blocks from where they were arrested.
A search of the car turned up a ‘hobby fuse’ and a metal can, along with a written list of chemical ingredients and components that could be used to build explosives, the complaint said.
When police detonated the devices, there was a ‘significant explosion,’ NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said.
The devices – which did not explode when Barat hurled them into the crowd – would have caused ‘death, destruction, an extremely dangerous compound, and an extremely dangerous place deployed,’ she added. …
Barat, whose parents were born in Turkey and reportedly became naturalized US citizens in 2017, lived with his family in a $653,000 home in Langhorne.
Two men and a woman were taken into custody at the 3,200-square-foot, two-story residence, WPVI reported. …
At least 10 agents stormed Kayumi’s parents’ $2.25 million home in Newtown on Sunday, footage captured by WCAU showed.
One man was detained at the sprawling 5,800-square-foot home, which boasts six bedrooms and five bedrooms.
Charges have not been brought against the individuals who were detained at the respective residences.
Kayumi’s parents are from Afghanistan and became naturalized US citizens in 2004 and 2009.
The suspected bomber was in Istanbul for multiple weeks in July and August 2024. He also went to Saudi Arabia in March that same year.
Balat also traveled to Turkey multiple times in the past year, with his most recent trip having occurred in January.
That’s a whole lot of traveling by these two kids of what one might call “privilege,” using one of the leftists’ favorite words. But the left won’t be saying that about them, because the left is determined to hide what’s going on here as best they can.
There are many articles about the ways in which the MSM and Mamdani have done this, but the gist of it is to carefully choose words that make it seem as though it was the protesters doing the bomb-throwing and the target may even have been Mamdani. Or, the pair of bombers is treated as just some high-spirited youths having a bit of fun as they strike out at Islamophobes. You can read about these press approaches here, here, and here. From the latter, quoting a CNN article that has since been deleted:
“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather.
But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home. Here’s what we know so far.
Due to heavy criticism, CNN deleted the post and wrote:
A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.
The article was no accident and no rogue event. It was part and parcel of the usual slanted coverage we’ve all noticed for decides.
As for Mamdani, this was a more recent effort, which was at least somewhat better than his first efforts. You can see what the emphasis still was:
On Saturday, a protest was held outside Gracie Mansion, where I live with my wife, Rama. Neither of us were home at the time. This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled, “Stop the Islamic takeover of New York City.” I’m the first Muslim mayor of our city. Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home. While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen. Ours is a free society where the right to peaceful protest is sacred. It does not belong only to those we agree with. It belongs to everyone. I will defend that right every day that I am mayor, even when those protesting say things that I abhor.
Let me also be clear about something else. New York City will never tolerate violence, whether from protests or counter protests. Many of the counter protesters met this display of bigotry peacefully, with a vision of a city that is welcoming to all. But a few did not. Two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, traveled from Pennsylvania and attempted to bring violence to New York City. They are suspected of coming here to commit an act of terrorism. There is a video of these two individuals throwing two devices towards the protest. The Police Department has determined that these were improvised explosive devices made to injure, maim or worse. Thanks to the swift and decisive actions of NYPD officers at the scene, both men were immediately taken into custody, and the devices they brought taken off of our streets.
Roundup
Here we go again:
(1) Colonel MacGregor is Tucker Carlson’s longtime go-to “expert.” He sings the same song as Carlson. I’ve written about him before, mostly in connection with his pro-Russian “predictions” about the Ukraine War (see this). Apparently he’s now opining on the awfulness of Israel and our war on Iran – of course.
That’s why bonchie of RedState has posted this Twitter thread listing the things about which MacGregor has been wrong (hat tip: commenter “IrishOtter49”). The list is long. It would be a lot easier and shorter to list the times MacGregor has been correct.
(2) And speaking of disinformation (which we were), “X” has suspended 800 million fake accounts over the last year. Yes, you read that right: 800,000,000.
Elon Musk’s X said it had suspended 800m accounts over a 12-month period as it fights the “massive” scale of attempts to manipulate the platform.
The social media company told MPs it was continually fighting state-backed attempts to hijack the agenda on its network, with Russia the most prolific state actor, followed by Iran and China.
As part of the battle against such content, X suspended 800m accounts in 2024 for breaching its rules on platform manipulation and spam, although it did not reveal which of those suspensions related to foreign interference. X has approximately 300 million monthly users worldwide.
(3) Is this true? And if so, to what does it refer, and we will ever learn?:
Former Mossad official and JCFA researcher, @Sagivasulin2025, says: “I can say that big things have happened in Iran, on the scale of the beepers and perhaps even more. They may not photograph as dramatically, but over time we will hear about them, and they are no less amazing. There are also other significant things that remain up the sleeve.”
Prior to the beepers, it would be harder to believe. Now it’s much more easy to believe.
(4) About traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has been working on the insurance problem [my emphasis]:
Iran’s mullahs thought they could weaponize the Strait of Hormuz; instead, Trump turned their maritime choke point into a pressure point on their crumbling regime and its enablers.
As Washington underwrites safe passage and “privateer” tankers steam through silently with transponders off, the ayatollahs are reduced to offering bribery coupons for “safe passage” to any government willing to dump U.S. and Israeli diplomats, advertising weakness to friend and foe alike.
(5) This is at least part of the reason the arts have gotten so crummy:
The problem for opera and ballet, and indeed for straight theater and musicals as well, is that they stopped looking for audiences and started looking for grants. A bunch of woke, rich White people can give you money to produce the first Inuit opera but it doesn’t mean anybody wants to see it.
And have you looked at the contenders for Best Picture at the Oscars this year? I had the misfortune to see a half-hour of the film that writer ranks as #2: One Battle After Another. It’s a half-hour I’ll never get back, but at least I didn’t pay money for the privilege. I plan to write a review soon. Suffice to say I think it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen.
Open thread 3/10/2026
A diver’s eye perspective:
Khamenei Junior …
… is the new Supreme Leader of Iran.
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Mojtaba Khamenei is supposedly rich, too; a not-so-austere religious scholar*:
Although it’s impossible to confirm information about him found on the internet, Mojtaba appears to be fabulously wealthy. For starters, he allegedly owns a portfolio of luxury properties in London valued at more than £100 million.
Maybe if Khamenei The Younger ever decided to flee, Keir Starmer would welcome him to London.
* Reference here.
Rubio: old and new
A great many people on the right who used to mock and distrust Marco Rubio are very appreciative of his performance so far as Secretary of State.
They’re also very surprised, because they had written him off as a lightweight and even a betrayer. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump gave him a name – “Little Marco” – that seemed to sum this up. And Chris Christie mocked him for repeating himself in one of the Republican debates.
But the worm sometimes turns. Somewhere along the line, Trump decided that Little Marco was big enough to become his Secretary of State, and now he praises him to the skies. Those who think Trump never abandons a grudge forget things like this. Then again, maybe Trump never disliked Rubio at all and the name-calling was just his usual tactic of insulting his rivals.
Now we’re hearing there’s a chance that the Cuban Communist regime will fall soon. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary if a man of Cuban heritage, whose parents hated Communism, would hold the post of Secretary of State when the end of the regime came?
NOTE: Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of verbiage here defending Rubio. In this 2015 post I highlighted some suggestions for how he should deal with his earlier stance on amnesty, and in two long post I analyzed what happened in that awful exchange with Christie during the debates. Those posts are this one and especially this one. That latter post might even help you in arguments you have in your own life; it contains some information about the art of arguing.
To understand Iran’s calculations, you must understand their eschatological vision
Why did they pursue the destruction of Israel like Ahab pursued Moby Dick, from the very moment they took over Iran? What had Israel ever done to them?
Why did the fierce attacks by the US and Israel last summer not dissuade them from their destructive goals?
Why were they seemingly not listening to Trump’s warning that if they didn’t give up their nuclear weapons and stop killing their own people in droves, they would suffer more attacks from the US?
Yes, nuclear weapons would make them untouchable; this was a good part of North Korea’s motives, too, in obtaining them. But North Korea is an island of sanity compared to the mullahs in their belief system and goals.
Please read this description of what drives the mullahs. Here’s an excerpt:
… [T]he late Ayatollah Khomeini’s Twelver-influenced Shi’i revolutionary theology, promotes a worldview that elevates death, martyrdom, and chaos as instruments of divine purpose.
Most wars can be halted through political pressure, negotiation, or deterrence. But this conflict is grounded in a dogma that sanctifies destruction and bloodshed as necessary steps toward redemption. Within this framework, Israel’s destruction is not simply a strategic objective; it is portrayed as a sacred duty. Iran will therefore persist in waging this war because its leaders believe they are carrying out God’s work, and that only through Israel’s elimination will redemption arrive. Until the West grasps this theological dimension, its response to Iran will remain inadequate—and dangerously naïve. …
The Iranian regime considers their nation to be chosen by Allah to prepare the world for the coming of their messiah, the Twelfth Imam (whom they call the Mahdi) who will establish justice in the world. They believe that catastrophic world chaos and the defeat of their enemies, especially Israel, are prerequisites for this event. Their murder and mayhem is not only a means to an end; according to their religion it is an end in itself, and their foreign policy is guided by the desired impending apocalypse. This makes them a most dangerous foe, since there is no chance of negotiating with them or resolving the conflict peacefully; peace and justice will come only through their own martyrdom, in their view.
The leader for whom Iran prepares the way is the Twelfth Imam, or the Mahdi. Twelver Shia Muslims believe that the Mahdi disappeared in the 9th century and was placed into “divine occultation” (ghaybah), where he will remain until he reappears to declare victory over all the world’s Islamic infidels and establish a global Shia Islamic kingdom. Chaos and war, however, are necessary to bring his return.
If you keep that in mind when you think about the leaders of the Iranian theocracy, I think many of their actions become understandable. And the need to eliminate their rule becomes not a choice, but a necessity. The chaos and destruction they seek to cause involves not just Israel, but other Muslim nations not in accord with them (the Gulf States, for example, which they have attacked recently), Western nations and in particular the US, and ultimately the world.
Perhaps the real reason the Iranians told Witkoff and Kushner at the recent negotiations that they had retained enriched material and could easily build eleven nuclear weapons in short order (see this) was a combination of their thinking that the US didn’t have the guts to do much about it, plus a way to say, “Hey, bring it on!”