Exposed: Khamenei’s Secretive Power Structure Built to Ensure the Regime’s Survival

(New York, NY) - Unmasking the Bayt: Inside the Supreme Leader’s Office, the Hidden Nerve Center of the Islamic Republic a new report by Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, exposes the shadowy individuals, bureaus, and complex network of organizations that fall under the control of the Bayt—the Office of the Supreme Leader. Using Persian-language material acquired from inside Iran’s regime, the report reveals for the first time detailed information that, until now, was only available to intelligence services.

Against the backdrop of protests, Khamenei’s reduced visibility, and talk of power vacuums, the report provides new evidence of a “coup-proof” machinery built to ensure Ayatollah Khamenei’s absolute hold on the regime remains firmly intact, even when he is less visible in public. Indeed, despite the threat of U.S. military strikes, and the shadow of the fate of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, the Bayt has allowed Khamenei to increase his grip on power. Further, Western narratives of elite fragmentation or imminent reform underestimate the Bayt’s central role in consolidating power.

The report reveals that the Bayt is not merely an extension of the Supreme Leader’s will – it entrenches his authority: by embedding parallel institutions to oversee ministries; by cultivating an intelligence and security apparatus to suppress opposition; and by controlling vast economic conglomerates. It is this structure—layered, opaque, and entrenched—that allows the regime a unique resilience to external and internal shocks. 

The key findings exposed include: 

• The Bayt is a political giant with more than 4000 employees in its core office and more than 40,000 under its affiliated umbrella overseen by Ayatollah Mohammadi Golpayegani and Seyyed Ali Asghar Hejazi, Khamenei’s deputy chief of staff, and key deputies including Hossein Fadaee. The true powerbrokers of the Bayt are Khamenei’s four sons: Mostafa, Mojtaba, Masoud, and Meysam. Mojtaba effectively serves as a “mini-Supreme Leader” within his father’s office.
• The Bayt’s machinery has allowed Khamenei to further consolidate control over Iran’s armed forces and security apparatus as the prospect of military strikes and renewed unrest looms. This parallel supreme apparatus in the Bayt has centralized military promotions, counterintelligence, and ideological oversight, while bureaucratizing and policing every state institution to ensure loyalty and suppress dissent.
• Through this invisible parallel military, security, political, and cultural structure, the Bayt tightly controls every aspect of policymaking, appointments, “elections” and the media. Crucially, the Bayt’s apparatus micromanages nuclear negotiations and war-time decisions, ensuring ultimate authority remains with the Supreme Leader.
• The Islamic Republic’s most enduring strength lies in the Bayt’s hidden architecture of control. It is not Khamenei the man, but the Bayt as an institution that enables the Supreme Leader’s complete control over every aspect of policy and decision making even in Khamenei’s personal absence. 
• For U.S. and regional policymakers, this reality carries direct implications: to achieve meaningful change in Iran—including regime change—the Bayt and its extensive apparatus must be significantly weakened through a combination of sanctions, cyber operations, and military measures.

 Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research, UANI said:

“Our analysis identifies the organizations and names the men who will pull the levers of power if and when war breaks out. They operate in the shadows, but they are the regime’s insurance policy. Even if Khamenei is isolated in a bunker — or eliminated — this machinery is designed to preserve the Supreme Leader’s authority and keep the system intact. Without dismantling it, meaningful change is unlikely.”

Saeid Golkar, Senior Advisor, UANI said:

“Khamenei has institutionalized control at every level. His envoys are embedded across ministries, provinces, and key state bodies, vetting appointments and policies to ensure loyalty. The system does not depend on his visibility; it depends on the machinery he constructed to enforce authority and guarantee continuity.”

Other Key Findings Include:

Armed Forces

As the likelihood of military confrontation and renewed anti-regime protests increases, the report reveals how Khamenei is tightening his grip over the military and security apparatus. It reveals: 

• The Military Office of the Supreme Leader, headed by Brigadier General Mohammad Shirazi, where, for example, military officials seeking promotion beyond the rank of second brigadier must obtain approval from this office — placing senior command structures directly under Khamenei’s control; 
• The Bayt’s shadowy Counterintelligence Office, led by hardline cleric and IRGC member Hojatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Ramazani, which directs the counterintelligence architecture across Iran’s military security institutions; 
• Ayatollah Ali Saeedi serves as the Supreme Leader’s representative across the armed forces, overseeing indoctrination, recruitment, and policy direction throughout the military. Through close coordination with Khamenei, Saeedi has built a cult of personality to ensure forces remain ideologically compliant to the Supreme Leader. 

Seminary Schools

Through the Bayt, Khamenei has brought Iran’s seminary system (Howzeh-ye Elmiyeh) under his direct control employing a layered strategy of bureaucratization, co-optation, and coercion by: 

• Establishing the Supreme Council of the Seminary, staffed by clerics whom he personally appoints, and the Center for the Management of Seminaries, which oversees and standardizes seminary education nationwide;
• Monitoring dissent, promoting loyalty and silencing critics through the Clerical Basij, a militia embedded within seminaries acting as an ideological filter and an enforcement mechanism. 
• Once-autonomous centers of Shia learning have been transformed into an extension of the state with a new class of clerics who are as much security operatives as religious scholars.

Politics, Security and Culture

The Bayt’s parallel networks oversee electoral engineering and control of state media and cultural institutions, ensuring that dissent is suppressed and policymaking remains firmly aligned with the Supreme Leader’s authority including through:

• Security and intelligence organization (etelaat-e movazi), headed by Asghar Mir-Hejazi, including informal networks such as the Habib Ring, commanded by Mojtaba Khamenei;
• Political, social and cultural bureaus that parallel every government and state ministry. These bureaus guarantee Khamenei’s ability to micromanage every aspect of policy – including nuclear negotiations with the U.S.

Universities

• Against the backdrop of ongoing protests at universities, the Bayt’s networks have guaranteed Khamenei’s control. Khamenei’s personally appointed representatives act as his eyes, ears, and enforcers including through The Supreme Leader’s Office in Universities which manages ideological training and monitors dissent and is embedded in every university. 

The Economy

• The Bayt controls almost all aspects of Iran’s economy through a network of foundations and organizations, including an ecosystem of religious and charitable foundations known as bonyads which are thought to account for up to 20% of Iran’s GDP. Together with military and non-military foundations they are estimated to account for 60-65% of Iran’s GDP. 
• Directly controlled by the Supreme Leader bonyads, serve as both an economic powerhouse and political tool, directing resources to maintain regime loyalty and enriching elites. 
• One of the most significant Bonyads is the Bonyad-e Mostazafan Enghelab-e Eslami (BMEE), one of Iran's largest conglomerates with substantial interests in construction, mining, tourism, energy, finance, and logistics. Nominally, a charitable foundation tasked with supporting the poor, in practice BMEE operates as a sprawling state-owned conglomerate, described as a "state within a state," functioning with extraordinary autonomy under the direct supervision of the Supreme Leader. 

READ: Unmasking the Bayt: Inside the Supreme Leader’s Office, the Hidden Nerve Center of the Islamic Republic