Will the weakened regime reform, or race for the bomb?
An Iranian flag lies on the ground in front of the Islamic republic's embassy in Damascus on December 9, 2024
Photograph: AFP
FROM THE assault on America’s embassy during the Iranian revolution in 1979 to the sacking of the Saudi embassy in 2016, storming diplomatic missions used to be something Iranians did to others. These days it happens to Iran itself. Such was their hatred of Iran’s rulers that after they had smashed up the palace of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s fallen dictator, in Damascus this week, Syrian rebels moved on to the embassy of Iran, his prime backer. Back in Iran, many malcontents greeted scenes of the Islamic Republic’s forces fleeing from the rebels with a joy approaching that of Syria’s newly liberated people. “People are very happy and hope our regime will be next,” says a university lecturer in Tehran.