The same day Tehran's president told his critics:
"for those who say sanctions have no effect at all, I really don't know what to say to them"
Alan Eyre, the American diplomat who negotiated the original nuclear deal, explained why it barely matters. Pezeshkian's political influence rounds to zero, no base, no leverage, and as Alan put it:
"if I made my list of top 11, Pezeshkian wouldn't be on it"
The real list is ten or eleven men, mostly IRGC commanders forged in the Iran-Iraq war, plus the judiciary chief and the speaker.
Above them sits a wounded Supreme Leader who nobody has seen since the strike that killed his father, wife and children, approving decisions from hiding while making his first quiet appointments.
And here's the detail worth sitting with: Alan says the clerical council never wanted him, hardline commanders forced the succession through in wartime.
Every one of those men wants diplomacy.
Not one will loosen the grip on the strait to get it.
Which means the man saying sanctions hurt can't end them, and the men who can end them don't feel the hurt.
@AlanEyre1 @WeTheBrandon
