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Tehran, Iran According to the United States, Iranian officials are fighting among themselves.
“Nobody knows who’s in charge, including them,” US President Donald Trump said in late April, after the cease-fire temporarily reduced military operations.
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“They don’t have leaders, we don’t know the leaders. Nobody knows who the leaders are – I don’t think they know the leaders,” he added.
With Iran and the US moving away from the negotiation decision, almost five months after the first war, Washington is trying to portray the image of the confused Iranian leadership, which is struggling to unite after the assassination of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials during the war.
But this is a show that Iranian officials have flatly rejected.
Instead, in terms of government policy, they have focused on a common ground for Iran to continue to control the passage through the Strait of Hormuz, even while attacking the US.
This is despite what officials in Washington initially tried to explain fight against Hormuz as run by a group of brave people in Tehran.
Several tankers and cargo ships were attacked in the waterway this month, after Iran made it clear it would not allow ships to take the southern route through the strait near Oman, instead of the northern route through Iranian waters.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs, told state television on Tuesday night that Iran had offered a third route for ships to pass through. during talks in Omanwhich would also allow “both sides to go back and fulfill their (joint) commitments”. But this proposal does not seem to have solved the current problem.
Security elite
A group of military and security officials who have been using force in Iran since the start of the war, have shown that they are united on the Strait of Hormuz, and have decided to resume fighting with the US instead of backing down.
The most prominent among these leaders include Ahmad Vahidi, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ali Abdollahi, the head of the army during the war, and Ali Azmaei, the new head of the IRGC Navy.
Both have not been seen in public in recent weeks at Khamenei’s funeral and other events, and have frequently expressed their determination to consolidate what they believe will be a victory in the war.
As the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the main decision-making body that includes representatives of various political parties within the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr acts as the chief coordinator of the organization.
Zolghadr, who is also among the former IRGC guards, has only released a few short messages since taking over. killed Ali Larijani in March as chief of security. He has shown that negotiation is only acceptable when it is done on the basis of military power and without capitulation, that the power of the IRGC in the Strait of Hormuz is an economic strategy, and that Tehran-backed allies in Lebanon and elsewhere remain an integrated part of national security.
Ambassadors
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian heads the government’s ministries of finance and economic affairs, and has said he encouraged diplomacy. But he has less power than the military’s security chiefs – even though he heads the security agency.
Since the start of his presidential campaign two years ago, he has repeatedly denied reports and speculations inside and outside the country that he is threatening to step down due to his declining powers. However, they are often used as scapegoats for failed attempts.
Speaking at a televised conference on Tuesday night, Pezeshkian also sought to portray an image of unity, especially with military officials leading the war, which has killed at least 30 people and hit 11 provinces in Iran in the past week.
“Not only do I not consider myself to be different from the military, but I will defend them vigorously and consider it my honor. The state television has no right to say that the government and the army are different; This is what Israel is saying,” Pezeshkian said, criticizing the IRIB state broadcaster for being too conservative.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, well-known in negotiations with the West for twenty years, focuses his speech on negotiations, repeatedly criticizing Washington for violating several articles of the memorandum of understanding with the US, especially in relation to Hormuz, Lebanon, and providing fat.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the parliament, has been appointed as the chief negotiator. He has used his reputation as a former head of the IRGC, chief of police, and mayor of Tehran to drive the politics of the establishment of a theocracy in Iran.
But Ghalibaf and others who favor talks with Washington have been repeatedly criticized for some of the Islamic Republic’s most pressing issues.
Tight bands
The hardline factions include many of the lawmakers in the parliament, who met on Monday for the first time since the war began to call for Khamenei’s death, and control over the Strait of Hormuz to be kept.
The strongest faction within the establishment is known as the Paydari Front, led by Saeed Jalili, the representative of the supreme leader in the Supreme National Security Council. The state television is run by people close to this group, which has always opposed any US concessions regardless of the cost.
According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, which was approved after the Islamic revolution of 1979, the supreme leader has absolute power, and can rule for the rest of his life.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been in power for almost 37 years, and the mantle has been passed to his son, Mojtaba, who has not been seen or heard in public – except for written messages attributed to him – but is supported by military security officials.
Last week, he also appointed a tougher criminal justice chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeiwho has a vote in the security council, for another five years.
But Mojtaba Khamenei – who Trump said this week was “90 percent gone” – does not enjoy the same power as his father, who had the final say on all matters.
Last month, he said he accepted the memorandum of understanding despite having “different views” on it, after Pezeshkian and the security agency agreed to take responsibility for whatever happens. He also emphasized that it is important for the establishment, as well as “free people around the world”, to start a “divine mission” to avenge his father.
