Khamenei remains in control despite isolation, new report says

. . . But a new report from United Against Nuclear Iran argues that despite Khamenei’s physical isolation, he continues to be the primary source of authority in the Islamic Republic through his control of the bayt-e rahbari, his 4,000-man private office that serves as a state within the state. One of the report’s authors, Saeid Golkar, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a senior adviser at UANI, told JNS that fatally weakening the Islamic Republic would likely require striking at both Khamenei and his inner cadre in the bayt. “Imagine you are dealing with an onion,” Golkar said. “If you want to peel it gradually, it becomes very difficult. You start to cry. But if you smash the center of it, then you tear out the onion much more easily.”