Huss/ein Banai

The Remains of the State What becomes of loyalists once the regime starts to unravel?

Some thoughts on what might become of regime loyalists

open.substack.com/pub/hedgeofs...

Why Trump's claim that Iranians should take to the streets had to be rowed back | DW News YouTube video by DW News

Told DW News that the Trump admin is merely muddling through a set of incoherent objectives and strategies in the war on Iran.

youtu.be/Yf7YkT4s1Zg?...

Trump demands Iran's 'unconditional surrender' as Israel says it hit leadership bunker 'with 50 jets' Tehran residents tell BBC Persian

In just six days we’ve gone from “Iranians take over your country” to “we’re open to talking with the new leadership of the regime” to “I want to pick the new leader” to now “unconditional surrender”.

A “concept of a plan”, indeed.

www.bbc.com/news/live/ce...

Insightful, deep reporting in this piece - beyond the headline.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/u...

Donald Trump’s dangerous ‘war of whim’ Anyone who claims to know where this conflict will go is bluffing

"Trump has seen George W Bush’s record and raised it. There is nothing good to say about Iran’s regime. But it has shown a better instinct for reading Trump’s intentions than his voters."

www.ft.com/content/611e...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Son Emerges as Leading Choice to Be His Successor

Likelihood of getting along with the new leader... zero: "Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Adel; his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, and a son were killed alongside his father in strikes on Saturday, the Iranian government said."

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/w...

Carney says Ottawa’s position supporting U.S., Israeli strikes on Iran was taken with regret But the U.S. and Israel have acted without engaging the UN or allies, leaving the question of where things will go from here, the Prime Minister said

Carney's talent in this moment is crafting the appropriate words for the responsible doctrine he's pursuing.

www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Join us at 3pm EST, if you can.

War in Iran, Chalamet vs. Jordan, & the American Black Film Festival | Higher Learning | The Ringer YouTube video by Higher Learning

A pleasure, as always, to appear on Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsey.

youtu.be/l3Astuq4hkA

Thank you, friend.

Fantastic op-ed by @hbanai.bsky.social on Iran.

I have to say the Post chose a hell of a moment to lay off all their foreign correspondents

Inside the plan to kill Ali Khamenei Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and monitoring bodyguards ahead of the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader

The details of the Israeli intelligence work ahead of the lethal strikes on Khamenei’s compound are truly remarkable. But the specific reference to a CIA human source inside the regime as the final/pivotal confirmation for Khamenei’s location is especially intriguing.

www.ft.com/content/bf99...

I’ll repeat: he is the independent variable in all this.

Washington's strategy – wreaking havoc or trying to bring about regime change? | DW News YouTube video by DW News

I told DW News yesterday that this war is the continuation of Trump's "shoot first and aim later" approach to Iran over the past 10 years.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemJ...

Why more Democrats need to be on Fox 👇

After Khamenei, who rules Iran? Under fire from US and Israeli jets, the Islamic republic’s leaders turn to succession

Good FT piece on Iran's complex political system and opaque struggles among elite factions on issue of succession and country's trajectory. All well known to scholars & analysts of Iran of course and something I feel confident those running things now know or care little about sadly.

. @hbanai.bsky.social on what's next in Iran. "The question that will dominate moving ahead is not the one the administration has been asking... It is this: what comes after the Islamic Republic, and who decides?"

Opinion: Two wrongs don’t make a right in the Iran war U.S. administration has no apparent plan for the complicated day after in Iran, and its people deserve better

As I argue in this piece, "Iranians deserve far better than the regime that has ruled them. They deserve equally better than an intervention that treats their future as an afterthought."

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Yup, if 2003 was farce, this is something considerably more thoughtless.

open.substack.com/pub/hedgeofs...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hard-Line Cleric Who Made Iran a Regional Power, Dies at 86 As Iran’s second supreme leader, he brutally crushed dissent at home and expanded Iran’s footprint abroad, challenging Saudi Arabia for regional dominance.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who in more than three decades as Iran’s supreme leader turned the Islamic Republic into a regional power, brutally crushing dissent at home, and maintaining unswerving hostility to the U.S. and Israel, died on Saturday during U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. He was 86.

At War With Iran A rapid-response event discussing the crisis in the Middle East

Register today for our rapid response event on the crisis in Iran. Our expert panel (@hbanai.bsky.social; @dassakaye.bsky.social; @marieharf.bsky.social) will discuss what this means for the region and the world more broadly, possible next steps, and more. www.eventbrite.com/e/at-war-wit...

“The prevailing grammar of anti-imperial critique has a habit of allowing the indictment of external aggression to crowd out the indictment of internal tyranny, as though the two were in competition rather than in parallel.“

This is very good and stands among lots of first takes out there - worth a read

Farce, Again? Some preliminary thoughts on the US-Israeli strikes on Iran

I've written at least two op-eds that are sitting in the mailboxes of editors that may or may not publish them. So here's a preliminary take:

"One can believe the regime deserved to fall and still believe this war is a disaster in the making."

hedgeofstate.substack.com/p/farce-again

The Death of Khamenei and the End of an Era His life’s work was to preserve a revolution that is heading for the ash heap.

Good short political obituary by @ksadjadpour.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

That's an AI-generated image of Khamenei. Set aside the veracity of the claim, the basic ignorance about what the head of the regime he hates actually looks like is shocking.

Big, if true.

Key follows for today and going forward if you want to know what’s happening in Iran and the region: @hbanai.bsky.social @dassakaye.bsky.social @abuaardvark.bsky.social
@arashtehran.bsky.social @dahliasc.bsky.social @yjtorbati.bsky.social