Iran after Khamenei: A new order takes shape
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, has inherited a political system that his father spent decades building and shaping in his own image. The Islamic
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, has inherited a political system that his father spent decades building and shaping in his own image. The Islamic Republic of Iran is entering a new political era as Iranians on Thursday prepared to bury their slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his hometown of Mashhad in northeastern Iran. His son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei still remains hidden from public view after being disfigured in the US air strike that killed his father when the Iran war began on February 28. The younger Khamenei — the Islamic Republic's third supreme leader since the 1979 Revolution — was conspicuously absent from even the official mourning ceremonies for his father. This leadership transition in Iran represents far more than a simple change at the top of the state. It is the culmination of a profound institutional transformation that unfolded during Ali Khamenei's nearly four decades in power. What is Khamenei's funeral revealing about Iran? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Reza Talebi, a political analyst, said Khamenei gradually reshaped the power structures of the Islamic Republic. "Unlike Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who established a system after the revolution that rested on revolutionary legitimacy and his personal authority, Ali Khamenei began systematically restructuring that system,” Talebi told DW. Over the past 37 years, the influence of senior clerics and Shiite semnaries over key political decisions has steadily diminished, he pointed out.
In their place, security institutions, the Office of the Supreme Leader, and the political and military networks associated with it have become increasingly dominant, the expert added. presidents appear sidelined by the regime This transformation has also altered the role of Iran's elected institutions. In Talebi's view, presidential elections have increasingly evolved into contests conducted within a pre-defined political framework. Although presidents from different political factions were able to pursue their own domestic priorities, they had limited room for maneuver in strategic areas such as foreign policy, the nuclear program, and regional affairs, Talebi said. Notably, during the si day state mourning ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, none of the Islamic Republic's three former living presidents — Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Mohammad Khatami —appeared alongside other leading figures of the political establishment. Instead, official images focused on representatives of the security apparatus, particularly commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as incumbent President Masoud Pezeshkian. Pezeshkian is widely believed to have maintained a close working relationship with Mojtaba Khamenei. He played a central role in negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war. Iran holds mass funeral for late Supreme Leader Khamenei To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The conflict, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks on Iran and ended nearly six weeks later in a fragile ceasefire, gave way to a diplomatic process that Mojtaba Khamenei eventually approved.
The BriefWire