Afshon Ostovar is an associate professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and the author of the forthcoming book Wars of Ambition: The United Stares, Iran, and the Struggle for the Middle East.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech during the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the latter's mausoleum in Tehran on June 4, 2007.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards during a ceremony to mark the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution at the mausoleum of Iran's late founder of Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran on Feb. 1, 2006.
Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani attends Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, Iran on Sept. 18, 2016.
