Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faced a coup attempt last month led by former President Hassan Rouhani, right before Khamenei cracked down on Iranian protesters and killed tens of thousands, a report published on Sunday by French daily Le Figaro claims.

• Rouhani reportedly had the support of Mohammed Javad Zarif, his old foreign minister and mentor to current president Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as figures close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (Pezeshkian himself apparently was not involved.)
• The coup apparently failed when Rouhani couldn’t convince Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s national security council, to join.
• After the events of January, both Rouhani and Zarif were reportedly placed under house arrest.

The New York Times reports that Khamenei has since trusted Larijani with much of the day-to-day governance, sidelining Pezeshkian:

Ayatollah Khamenei has instructed Mr. Larijani and a handful of other close political and military associates to ensure that the Islamic Republic survives not only American and Israeli bombs but also any assassination attempts on its top leadership, including on Ayatollah Khamenei himself.

These reports come as the United States military has amassed its largest concentration of assets in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The U.S. and Iran are scheduled to hold nuclear talks in Switzerland Thursday. If those go poorly, U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated he may order an attack, and its goal might be regime change.

Iran appears weak. But as an adage states, an animal is most dangerous when it is wounded. Iran’s response to last month’s protests—by some accounts murdering over 30,000 people in two days—shows how deadly serious Khamenei is about his regime retaining power. The Trumpet has consistently said radical Islam, led by Iran, will grow in power to fulfill its role as the end-time “king of the south” of Daniel 11:40, a power strong enough to provoke world war. Iran’s regime is not finished.