ANALYSIS | Why killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may not mean regime change in Iran | CBC News

I'm shocked

University of Ottawa Middle East expert Thomas Juneau cautioned that Khamenei's killing may not become the seismic event that some hope.

"We may wish for a secular democracy to replace it swiftly, but there are two hard realities to contend with: There is no alternative, democratic or otherwise, ready to take over; and the U.S. record at engineering regime change is very poor," Juneau wrote.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday morning, British Iranian journalist Rana Rahimpour said there has been no evidence of disloyalty to the regime from Iran's security services nor from its powerful Revolutionary Guard.

"We don't have any signs suggesting that the armed forces are ready to join the protesters. And as long as they have guns, it's going to be very difficult for people to bring down the regime single-handedly."

But the whole piece is worth reading.