Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has often expressed disdain for its pre-Islamic past when the land was ruled by kings, calling that a time of “illusions, not a source of pride” that was afflicted by corruption and dictatorship.

So it was a stark shift in tone when, in a speech just days after the Israeli onslaught against Iran last month, Khamenei repeatedly praised the country’s “ancient civilization” and boasted that Iran has “cultural and civilizational wealth” far greater than that of America.