UANI Policy Director Jason M. Brodsky Discusses Leadership Succession in Iran

“With this [interim leadership] council, I view more continuity than change. It’s really a placeholder or caretaker role . . . but there are other players on the field as well who are exercising significant authority in the Islamic Republic, like Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Parliament, who’s a former IRGC commander, who’s been really liaising with the Armed Forces. And you have Ali Larijani, who’s the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who’s been also playing a key role. So now the decision-making has become more diffused since Ayatollah Khamenei’s demise, because when he was alive, everyone knew where the buck stopped and there was one address. But now there are multiple different players.”