Overview
- Iran’s clerics elevated Mojtaba Khamenei after an airstrike killed his father, yet he has not appeared in public since, leaving questions about who directs daily rule.
- New wartime picks put Revolutionary Guard veterans in key posts, including national security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi, and military adviser Mohsen Rezaie, figures linked to past violence and the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing by accusers.
- The regime’s ideology has sharpened, with experts saying apocalyptic Mahdism now shapes choices, and a senior Guard figure urging families on state TV to send their children to fight in the name of the Mahdi.
- Public messaging turned overtly martial, as a March 13 billboard in Tehran showed Mojtaba Khamenei ordering IRGC missile fire and likened his role to Imam Ali, signaling a divinely framed call to arms.
- Leaders have tightened control at home through arrests, executions, and street deployments, and they have struck regional rivals while gaining leverage from de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil shipments.