Iran's elite locked in power struggle after Khamenei, analysis says

The analysis, written by Iran specialists Kasra Aarabi, director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps research at United Against Nuclear Iran, and Saeid Golkar, the organisation's senior adviser and associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, argues that the confrontation is not driven by ideological differences but by competing elite factions seeking to consolidate power after the loss of the figure who had long balanced their competing interests.

According to the authors, the rival groups span Iran's clerical, military and political establishment but remain united in their commitment to the Islamic Republic's core principles, including the enforcement of Islamic law at home, support for the regional "Axis of Resistance", opposition to the United States and hostility towards Israel.