Russia and the United States projected their own centralized views onto Ukraine and Iran, analysts said. As a result, the smaller countries trapped larger ones in a costly confrontation.

Decision making in the country is guided by a small group of men associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The governments of both countries have repeatedly cast the other as evil, perpetuating a cycle that has culminated in the present war.

His father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had turned what was traditionally a religious affairs office into a shadowy national security juggernaut.

With their pervasive military, political and economic clout, the Guards are often considered the main impediment to regime change, or any change, in Iran.