however, indicates that the PLO presence in Iran is relatively limited. The Khomeini regime appears to have made a deter- mined effort to keep the PLO presence small in order to prevent the Palestinians from playing a significant role in Iran's internal affairs.

The current supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made final decisions on economy, education, environment, foreign policy, national planning, and almost everything else in the country.

The breadth of Israeli military strikes against Iran, spanning key parts of its nuclear infrastructure, senior military officials and nuclear scientists, ballistic missile stockpiles, and more recently energy infrastructure, probably are read in Iran as aimed at regime change, and make it more likely that Tehran will ...