elite-politics

Iran did not collapse after Khamenei — it just became harder to read

Six months after the killings of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ali Larijani, Iran has not collapsed nor reconstituted the highly personalized leadership that once revolved around Khamenei. Instead, power has become more opaque and security-centered: formal authority remains with Mojtaba Khamenei, but decision-making is increasingly mediated by institutions and security bodies, making Iran's actions across regions harder for outsiders to attribute and predict.