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Iran had good relations with Israel prior to 1979 and never persecuted or expelled its Jews after 1948 unlike every other country in the region. In fact there’s a great degree of very old cultural affinity between Persians and Jews. A secular Iran is likely to have very close ties with Israel if for no other reason than as a backlash to the excesses of the cleracy.

I agree, we don’t know what comes after bad leadership. Maybe a worse one. I’m afraid there isn’t much worse than a leadership that openly states that Israel should be destroyed, while developing a nuclear program. Maybe a similar but more competent leadership is worse.

Why? a non-religious Iran would have difficulty maintaining alliances with islamist organizations such as PMF and Hezbollah that were used to slaughter Iranian protestors. Also, like Syria it would probably pivot to a US-led alliance