Why Iran is not repeating 1979

UANI Senior Advisor Saeid Golkar writes: Is Iran heading towards another 1979? The temptation to rely on this analogy is understandable. Images of mass mobilisation and rapidly recurring protests evoke memories of the final months of the shah’s rule. Yet the comparison is ultimately misleading. The success of the 1979 revolution cannot be explained solely by mass mobilisation. Instead, it was the convergence of coordinated opposition under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and, more decisively, the ruling elites’ inability to effectively repress dissent that ensured its triumph. . . . The situation today is fundamentally different. Unlike the shah, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s leadership is not marked by hesitation or indecision during crises.