General Discussion

The ambassador makes clear Khamenei, in the end, was right in his assessment of the USA.

The third aspect almost prompted me to nod: while undoubtedly Washington officials had gaps in their understanding of Khamenei, the Americans in those meetings I once attended in Washington grasped precisely what was essential. I realized from listening to Khamenei that we got it right: his paranoia; his singular, hostile focus on the United States; how he was consumed with, and identified by, enmity toward Washington. By contrast, I thought, Khamenei gets us wrong. If he truly wanted to understand us, Khamenei could have queried Iranians who had studied in the United States or who had served at the Iranian mission to the U.N. But his obsession with U.S. enmity and decline led him to board flights of his preferred fancy: an imploding country of race riots, collapse of faith in democratic institutions, predatory economic mayhem, and falsified elections, all of which he outlined as if true. (What seemed preposterous in 2012 may now sound to many almost prescient, although prompted by Khamenei’s loathing rather than an informed read of America’s future.)