Khamenei, Iran's Political Survivor, Faces Ultimate Test

"He has prided himself on deterring conflict away from Iran's borders since he assumed the supreme leadership in 1989," said Jason Brodsky, policy director of US-based United Against Nuclear Iran. "So Khamenei has badly miscalculated." Brodsky said the nearest comparison to the current situation were the attacks against leaders blamed on the opposition in the early 1980s which saw the then president killed and Khamenei himself wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt. "It will be an experience that Khamenei will undoubtedly draw upon in the current context," Brodsky told AFP. "But what we are witnessing today is on a completely different level of magnitude. And it's occurring at a pace that threatens to overwhelm the capacity of Tehran."