The Ayatollah cannot govern effectively even if his 72 virgins depend on it. Outsourcing the day-to-day governance to a "president" while he focuses on internal security, exporting shia islam and making everyone's life worse off with his shariah laws hasn't worked.
If this sort of theocracy doesn't work in small places like Kelantan and Aceh, why would it work in a big country like Persia?
The Ayatollah is hanging onto his shia islam nonsense as his only legit reason to meddle in the Middle East, which is mostly muslim. Other than that, the Persians today are a joke. The islam that they embraced once slaughtered their forefathers and those colonial conquerors are held up like some ancient heroes while ancient persians who resisted them are denigrated. Nobody with an ounce of common sense will take such a people seriously.