WarSclerotic

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been at odds recently with military commanders responsible for aiding the Syrian regime in its 19-month struggle against opposition forces, according to a report by the London Times.

Khamenei is reportedly furious with Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani for failing to defeat the Syrian insurgents. Some analysts believe Suleimani may be sacked by Khamenei in the near future.

Despite transferring around $10 billion in aid to the embattled Syrian regime, the report claims that Iran’s leaders now believe President Bashar al-Assad and his government may not survive the uprising, and have made contact with the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria believing the movement to be a possible candidate to rule the country after Assad is deposed.

Iran’s worsening financial situation due to ongoing and gradually tightening economic sanctions by the West has been taking a toll on the Islamic republic. The Iranian currency, the rial, continues to plummet, and over the weekend lost an additional 6 percent of its value, reaching an all-time low.

Since the West began imposing sanctions, the rial has depreciated by 60% and the prices of goods in Iran have soared. Although the financial situation in the country is deteriorating, the local currency has all but collapsed and the situation has even led to skirmishes between consumers and store owners in some large cities, media reports, such as one by the Chicago Tribune on Monday, claim that the Iranian regime does not intend to budge even one inch on its current nuclear policy.

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintained his consistent diatribe against Israel. Asked if the U.S. and Israel were bluffing about a military strike on Iran, Ahmadinejad replied, “I have never used the word ‘bluff.’ When we say we are ignoring them [the threats], we mean they won’t affect our policies in any way.”

Ahmadinejad, whose term of office ends in nine months, said Iran was a “vast and splendid country,” and then described a possible attack scenario.

“Let’s assume some terrorists arrive in Tehran and assassinate some political leaders. Will the country be harmed? No. If a few bombs go off, will the country be harmed? No,” he said. “We view the Zionist regime the same way we view terrorists and criminals. Even if they take action, hypothetically, it will not affect us significantly.”

Echoing Ahmadinejad’s dismissal of U.S. and Israeli threats against Iran, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hasan Qashqavi commented on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau’s U.N. “red line” address last week. “The entire world is laughing at the phoney Zionist regime. Cheap acts like that by the leaders of the occupying Zionist regime are not new,” he said.

Qashqavi said it was the Islamic republic’s strength that had brought Netanyahu to act “stupidly.”

Despite the outwardly unified approach by Iranian leaders when confronting the media, a possible indication of the growing tension within the Iranian regime itself was the fact that the Iranian delegation to the U.N. returned to Iran with one less person: a photographer who accompanied Ahmadinejad during his visit to the U.N. building in New York. The photographer is rumored to have defected to the U.S. and asked for political asylum.

Meanwhile, the British Daily Telegraph quoted a Libyan intelligence agent on Monday saying that Syrian government officials gave French spies operating in Sirte, the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s last refuge, his satellite telephone number. The report called Assad’s alleged betrayal an act of self-preservation.

The Libyan ruler was killed in October 2011 after a nine-month uprising against his regime.

According to the report, Assad agreed to pass on Gadhafi’s phone number to French intelligence in exchange for a reduction of international pressure on his embattled regime.

The report quoted Rami El Obeidi, former head of the Libyan opposition’s foreign intelligence service, as saying, “In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened.”

Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in Libya’s transitional government and is now the head one of the country’s largest political parties, reportedly confirmed that a foreign agent took part in the operation to capture Gaddafi, which ended in the dictator’s death.