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Feb. 17, 2026 \u2014 Tehran: Ali Khamenei addresses a tightly controlled audience during a public appearance<\/p>\n\nFacebook
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Feb. 17, 2026 \u2014 Tehran: Ali Khamenei addresses a tightly controlled audience during a public appearance<\/p>\n
Three-minute read<\/p>\n
With indirect talks between the clerical regime in Iran and the United States underway in Geneva under Oman\u2019s mediation, Ali Khamenei used a carefully stage-managed appearance to do what he does when the regime feels exposed: intimidate the public, reassure the security apparatus, and pre-emptively frame any diplomatic movement as \u201csteadfastness,\u201d not retreat.<\/p>\n
The speech<\/a>, delivered to a handpicked crowd brought in under the label of \u201cpeople of Tabriz and East Azerbaijan,\u201d was never primarily aimed at foreign negotiators. It was aimed inward, at an exhausted apparatus that has taken reputational hits, battlefield losses, and a nationwide uprising that shattered the regime\u2019s claim to social consent. In Iran\u2019s power structure, the Supreme Leader is the final authority over core security and strategic files, including the nuclear track and the coercive institutions that keep the system alive; the diplomats operate within limits he sets.<\/p>\n Khamenei\u2019s loudest lines were also his emptiest. He revived the familiar theater of deterrence, warning that while a U.S. aircraft carrier is \u201ca dangerous device,\u201d \u201cmore dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea,\u201d and sneering that even the \u201cstrongest army in the world\u201d can be hit so hard it \u201ccannot get up.\u201d This is not strength; it is performative bravado designed to anesthetize fear inside the regime\u2019s ranks. The irony is hard to miss: the same leadership that boasts of \u201cspecial\u201d capabilities presided over a 12-day war<\/a> in which senior commanders and nuclear scientists were killed and key military and industrial targets were hit, exposing vulnerabilities the propaganda cannot erase.<\/p>\n #Khamenei<\/a> Rejects U.S. Talks, Vows Enrichment Will Continue as Snapback Deadline Nearshttps:\/\/t.co\/Q0Ug6uBUgs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n On the uprising, Khamenei repeated the regime\u2019s security-scripted fiction: the protests and the ensuing bloodshed were not a domestic revolt but a \u201cplanned coup.\u201d He claimed U.S. and Israeli intelligence recruited and trained \u201cthugs,\u201d supplied \u201cmoney and weapons,\u201d and sent them into Iran to sabotage military and state sites. He then portrayed the crackdown as a popular-security victory, insisting that security forces and \u201cmany people\u201d crushed the plot. The goal here is not explanation; it is absolution\u2014moving responsibility away from the chain of command and onto external enemies.<\/p>\n The most cynical section was his attempt to re-label the dead. Khamenei split those killed into \u201cringleaders\u201d who \u201cwent to hell,\u201d versus three other categories he called \u201cour children,\u201d including bystanders and those he described as \u201cdeceived\u201d and \u201cinexperienced.\u201d He even claimed some wrote to him to ask forgiveness. This is not reconciliation. It is a sorting mechanism: build a propaganda off-ramp for detainees who will publicly \u201crepent,\u201d<\/a> while justifying harsher punishment for anyone tied to organized resistance or anyone who refuses humiliation.<\/p>\n He underlined that logic by demanding prosecutions, saying \u201cpeople want\u201d the main \u201ccorrupt rioters\u201d pursued and punished, and that the judiciary and security bodies are \u201cobliged\u201d to act\u2014expanding the threat to those who align with the \u201cenemy\u201d through \u201cspeech, analysis, and action.\u201d It is an explicit warning to society that the regime intends to criminalize even interpretation and commentary, not just street protest.<\/p>\n Khamenei Claims the West Fears #Iran<\/a>\u2019s \u201cIslamic Order\u201d As He Tries to Steady a Shaken Base https:\/\/t.co\/yr5XzminXo<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Khamenei also tried to sell street theater as \u201csocial capital,\u201d calling the regime\u2019s recent anniversary marches \u201cdivine signs\u201d and proof of national vitality. But the credibility gap is widening. A Reuters video report described the main Tehran rally as drawing \u201cthousands,\u201d even as pro-regime outlets claimed fantastical totals in the tens of millions\u2014an inflationary politics that mirrors the regime\u2019s inflationary economy.<\/p>\n His message to \u201cinsiders\u201d was just as important as his threats to outsiders. The regime is struggling to project elite cohesion after the January bloodletting<\/a> was stamped onto Khamenei and the coercive organs he commands. Signs of clerical distance have surfaced as well: even in Qom\u2014normally a controlled stage for religious legitimacy\u2014he recently met residents without senior clerics present or cooperating, reinforcing the picture of a leadership increasingly dependent on force rather than consensus within its own establishment.<\/p>\n Khamenei Rejects Talks\u2014But His Advisors Say Otherwise. Why?https:\/\/t.co\/3qvPRGr2Pw<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n On negotiations, Khamenei\u2019s tough talk was calibrated for domestic consumption, not as a literal readout of bargaining intent. He again declared missile capability off-limits, calling \u201cdeterrent weapons\u201d \u201cnecessary and obligatory,\u201d and mocked U.S. calls for talks that predetermine outcomes: \u201cThey say negotiate on nuclear energy, but the result must be that you must not have it.\u201d The posture is familiar: posture publicly, leave maneuvering space privately, and blame the other side for any deadlock. When tactical necessity demands it, Khamenei has shown he can pivot sharply\u2014such as denying Iran\u2019s direct role<\/a> in the October 2023 attack after a staged military parade\u2014illustrating that rhetoric is a tool, not a confession of policy.<\/p>\n