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“Ultimately, it is not really possible to topple the regime through airstrikes,” said Dr. Raz Zimmt, head of the Iran and the Shiite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies.<\/p>\n
The Iranian regime<\/a> still maintains control on the ground and will not be able to be toppled through airstrikes, said Dr. Raz Zimmt, head of the Iran and the Shiite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), in an interview with 103FM on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201c\u201cLet\u2019s assume the war ends in a week or two and protests resume three or six months later; that is a period of time that would allow them to recover,\u201d Zimmt said on the ‘Seven to Nine’ program with Gideon Oko and Amichai Atali when asked whether airstrikes againstIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)<\/a> targets during Operation Roaring Lion<\/a> could, over time, erode the regime\u2019s governing mechanisms.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked for information [from the INSS] about reports on the deployment of roadblocks set up by the Basij and internal security forces across Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cI received a list of deployments of internal security forces and continued arrests against those suspected of espionage. Ultimately, it is not really possible to topple the regime through airstrikes.”<\/p>\n The Iran expert assessed that it is difficult to know to what extent the strikes have harmed the Revolutionary Guards\u2019 ability to control the ground, and in any case, whether damage to Iranian state institutions would accelerate the regime\u2019s collapse.<\/p>\n The head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies also addressed the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a>, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as Iran\u2019s next supreme leader.<\/p>\n‘We assume his positions are more extreme, radical’<\/h3>\n