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Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/02/05/pressure-alone-will-not-break-iran/
Pressure Alone Will Not Break Iran
(Israel Hayom) Maj. (res.) Danny Citrinowicz - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is inherently suspicious of the U.S. in general and of the American president in particular. He sees a comprehensive conspiracy against the regime, most recently the 12-day war and the wave of protests across Iran. Seen through this lens, it is clear why he has no intention of compromising on the regime's core principles. He prefers to risk an attack rather than submit. The American administration operates under the assumption that a combination of military pressure and a show of force will ultimately compel Tehran to accept U.S. demands, not only on the nuclear issue, but also on its missile program and network of regional proxies. Anyone attempting to anticipate Iran's next moves must understand that from the regime's perspective, its positions cannot be separated from the belief that it "stood firm" both in the military confrontation and in the face of protests, which it sees as part of a broad Western plot to overthrow it. As long as Khamenei remains at Iran's helm, regardless of what the U.S. does, it can be expected that he will not cross the line he has already defined as surrender. For the supreme leader, loyalty to the revolution's ideology outweighs considerations of prosperity or stability. Abandoning these principles would, in his eyes, amount to abandoning the revolution itself. Thus, in practice, the diplomatic track currently appears devoid of real viability. The writer, former head of the Iran branch in the research and analysis division of Israel defense intelligence, is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy and Strategy at Reichman University.