Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) isn't funded by the state budget. It operates a global network of front companies for construction and other projects, laundering money to create a self-sustaining financial ecosystem. If the regime collapses, the IRGC would likely persist as a heavily-armed mafia with international criminal ties.

The Iranian regime exploited Europe's desire for diplomatic rapprochement in the 1990s. It engaged in peace talks while simultaneously carrying out assassinations on European soil, viewing the dialogue not as a path to peace but as political cover that provided impunity for its crimes.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has eclipsed the clergy, controlling major political and economic institutions. Ayatollah Khamenei maintains power through a symbiotic relationship with the IRGC, leveraging their military and economic might, rather than just religious authority.

In the 1990s, as Iran's assassinations occurred across Europe, German and other European officials actively hid or excused Tehran's actions. This willful blindness was driven by economic interests, as Europe's exports to Iran reached a historic peak, making the prosecutor's inconvenient findings 'unwelcome.'

Iran's government created propaganda claiming theorist Gene Sharp, who worked with Dr. King, is a CIA operative. They use this to paint domestic protests as foreign-backed coups—a tactic of delegitimization ironically echoed by some U.S. commentators against American protesters.

The ruling elite has inverted from 80% ideologues at the revolution's start to 80% charlatans today. Expedience and financial gain, not revolutionary zeal, now bind the regime's core. This ideological hollowness makes the regime more brittle than its rhetoric suggests.

Destroying Iran's conventional military without toppling the regime could create a cornered, vengeful state. Lacking other options and led by a leader whose father was just killed, it might turn to asymmetric warfare like terrorism to retaliate for its humiliation and losses.

Iran has anticipated leadership decapitation strikes for decades, building a resilient and distributed command and control infrastructure. This allows its forces, particularly the IRGC, to continue operating and launching attacks even without direct contact with headquarters.

Despite a long history of documented terrorism, Iran has successfully manipulated global opinion by consistently erasing its past crimes from public memory. This allows the regime to present itself as a blank slate or a victim, entering diplomatic negotiations from a position of perceived innocence.