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Fox News national security reporter Jennifer Griffin joins ‘America Reports’ to provide the latest behind the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
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Iran entered a new chapter on Saturday after the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, abruptly ending more than three decades of brutal rule and ushering in a long-planned leadership transition.
Arab embassy official he told The Times of Israel that while Khamenei’s death was a “big blow” to the Islamic Republic, Tehran had expected it and taken measures to deal with such a situation.
“Just surviving, for now, would be considered a victory,” the official said, according to the source, following US and Israeli strikes across the country.
Latest report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) described three broad paths for a post-Khamenei Iran: the continuation of an authoritarian regime, an open or creeping military takeover, or an orderly collapse.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)
The CFR warned that even a change in leadership at the top would not translate into political change in the near term, given the regime’s highly centralized power structure and its history of using force to control.
The report notes that the real balance of power lies within a tight circle of elite clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
It describes a “continuity” scenario that could produce “Khamenei-ism without Khamenei,” where a successor from the government maintains the Islamic Republic’s ideological framework while relying on established security institutions to maintain stability.
LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL KHAMENEI’S SECRET DEADLY BLUEPRINT FOR DESTROYING IRAN PROTESTS.
“The Islamic Republic’s constitution includes a succession process. The Assembly of Experts, a clerical body, is constitutionally charged with choosing the next supreme leader,” Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), he told Fox News Digital.
“Currently, if there is a leadership vacancy, a temporary leadership body is created that includes the president, the chief judge and a member of the Waiting Council selected by the Expediency Council,” he added. “The IRGC has played a major role in this process, and will have a major impact on its results.”
Over the past thirty years, the Bayt-e Rahbari, or Office of the Supreme Leader, has expanded into just that. February report is described by UANI as a “growing parallel” that works closely with Iran’s official institutions.
Large crowds gather in Enghelab Square in Tehran, Sunday, after Iranian state TV announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in an Israeli strike. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The analysis portrays the Office as a “hidden state agency,” extending control over the military, security establishment and major economic bases in ways that institutionalize the program’s authority rather than relying on Khamenei’s presence.
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“The supreme leader today is no longer just an individual; he is represented by an all-encompassing institution that consolidates power, manages succession, and ensures continuity,” said the non-partisan organization. “The lasting power of the Islamic Republic lies in this hidden structure of control, which will continue to shape the future of the country long after Khamenei has left the scene.”
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