The Iranian Regime’s Nerve Centre That Helps Ali Khamenei’s Power Live On

The bayt is “the single most important entity in the Islamic Republic’s policy making”, according to Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, researchers whose timely report on the mysterious body was published last month by the organisation United Against Nuclear Iran. “The hidden nerve centre of the Islamic Republic” is a sprawling entity that forms a parallel government, clergy and military loyal only to the supreme leader. . . . Now, as supreme leader, Mojtaba inherits the sprawling office his father built, ensuring an iron grip over the regime. “As long as the bayt remains, meaningful political transformation is unlikely,” Golkar and Aarabi wrote.