Trump says Iran's "new regime" is more moderate, but experts state that the Iranian regime has not changed and is actually more hardline.

ME News update. On April 4 (UTC+8), U.S. President Trump said this week that Iran’s new leadership is “more moderate and more rational.” Trump and the Pentagon have repeatedly claimed that a regime change has taken place. But most political scientists and analysts believe that the so-called regime change should refer to external forces changing a country’s style of governance, rather than merely replacing the leaders of that system. Instead, the war strengthened the power of Iran’s hardline military faction and intensified anti-American sentiment. Mona Yacoubian, Director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “This regime is more hawkish and less inclined to compromise, and frankly, its ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are more direct. We saw the time’s top Iranian leader being removed in a ‘decapitation-style’ purge, but that did not translate into who held power or into any major shift in its stance toward the United States.” (Source: PANews)