At the heart of Iran’s aversion to a major conflict are the domestic issues that have been preoccupying the regime. Iran is also facing an economic crisis because of corruption, chronic fiscal mismanagement and sanctions imposed because of its nuclear infractions. At the time, Mr. Khamenei worried that unless the regime got the process right, its Western and domestic enemies would use the vacuum at the top to overthrow the young theocracy. Today, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 elderly clerics, is constitutionally empowered to select the next supreme leader. At a time when the bomb seems tantalizingly close, Mr. Khamenei is unlikely to jeopardize that progress by conduct that might invite a strike on those facilities.

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Persons: Ali Khamenei, Mahsa, Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, Ahmad Khatami, Rahim Tavakol, Mr Organizations: Islamic, Experts Locations: Islamic Republic, Iran, Republic, Iran’s, Ukraine, Gaza, Tehran