Mahdian tied the June 12-day war between Iran and Israel to what he called the same long-term strategy that led to Oct. 7. “The first point is that the war should not be analyzed as a single moment,” he said in an interview that was part of a package titled the Narrative of Victory. “This war was the result of a strategic plan in the field. We had built this over the years.”
He said Israel’s strikes in June were not a show of strength but a move Iran had expected. “You pushed him [Israel] into the corner of the ring, and he has no choice but to attack,” Mahdian said. “He does this not from power, but from desperation. This is a passive move against a long-term program that you have created.”
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in 2023, Israel has degraded Iran’s regional influence. That campaign crippled much of the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” including Hamas, Hezbollah, and armed groups in Syria and Iraq, and has reduced the capacity of these groups to operate.
Four days after the Hamas assault, Khamenei insisted Iran had no role. “It was the work of the Palestinians,” he said, adding: “We defend Palestine. We kiss the foreheads and arms of the young, wise and intelligent Palestinian planners, but this was their own work.”
Iran’s stance on Israel’s elimination
Mahdian said it was “both true and not true” that Iran seeks Israel’s elimination. He said Khamenei and the late Ruhollah Khomeini have both called for the removal of what they term the “Zionist regime,” but not through direct Iranian military action.
The idea, he said, is that others should take the lead. “The people should rise and decide to remove this regime,” Mahdian said. “We will definitely support this.”
He described this as a consistent policy in which Iran backs what it sees as oppressed populations against what it calls oppressors, while not carrying out such operations itself. “In this sense, we seek the removal of the Zionist regime, not in the sense of entering ourselves,” he said.