But it was his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who consolidated Iran’s position as a durable regional power over the past three decades. His removal, he warned, has pushed the system into “a zone of the unknown". Israel’s ambitions and their limitsIsrael’s operational reach inside Iran, Taneja suggested, has been strikingly effective. “Blocking or mining the Strait of Hormuz is going to be one of them,” Taneja warned, describing it as a card Tehran may yet play. The deeper risk, Taneja suggested, is not a single dramatic escalation but a prolonged period of instability in which miscalculation becomes more likely and economic shocks more frequent.

Source: The Telegraph March 04, 2026 08:04 UTC