When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s supreme leader for 37 years, was killed by Israel on Feb. 28, in the opening airstrike of the war against the Islamic Republic, he was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba.<\/p>\n
But at 86, the ayatollah had wielded a level of influence that no replacement could soon match.<\/p>\n
Senior Iranian officials maintain<\/a> that all key matters are run by the 56-year-old heir. Decision making, however, extends beyond one man, experts say, guided by a small, elite band of mostly current or former senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.<\/p>\n It is not the Guards as an organization that is exerting control, they say, but a hardened \u201cband of brothers,\u201d whose seminal experience was the brutal, eight-year war between Iran and Iraq that began in 1980.<\/p>\n Founded in 1979 to safeguard the newborn revolution and its leader, the Guards promoted these commanders to generals while they were still in their late 20s or early 30s. Western support for Iraq in the war convinced them that Iran had to forge its own way no matter what the cost.<\/p>\n After the war, they went on to control intelligence or security services. Most are believed to have some personal connection with Mojtaba Khamenei from the long years that he directed his father\u2019s office.<\/a><\/p>\n These men are among the hardest-line figures in the country \u2014 militants not only in terms of perpetuating the Islamic revolution, but also in the harsh methods they have championed while running the main organs of government repression.<\/p>\n Their shared backgrounds, careers and ideological outlook are one reason the war has neither collapsed the government nor paralyzed it, despite the deaths of about 50 top political and military leaders, experts said.<\/p>\n Whatever jockeying may be taking place among these central figures over whether to seek a pragmatic end to the conflict remains largely opaque. Some shunned the limelight even before the war. Now they now remain hidden for fear of being targeted.<\/p>\n Here are some of the most powerful figures in Iran today.<\/p>\n Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, 64Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in 2025.Credit…Arash Khamooshi\/Polaris for The New York Times<\/p>\n The speaker of the Iranian Parliament since 2020, Mr. Ghalibaf has served as commander of the Guards air force and chief of the national police, as well as the mayor of Tehran.<\/p>\n Mr. Ghalibaf once boasted<\/a> that during anti-government demonstrations in 1999, despite his rank, he had ridden on the back of a motorcycle like an ordinary militiaman to beat protesters with sticks.<\/p>\n In 2004, he ran for president and tried to change his image. \u201cHe showed up on election day looking like Don Johnson on \u2018Miami Vice,\u2019\u201d donning a white suit and sunglasses instead of his uniform, said Afshon Ostovar, author of \u201cVanguard of the Imam<\/a>,\u201d a history of the Guards. It was a failed attempt to appeal to middle-class voters, and made some conservative supporters suspect his ambitions.<\/p>\n Mr. Ghalibaf is something of a bridge between the political and military elite. Considered a pragmatic figure, he negotiated directly with the United States in Pakistan last month. Some detractors suspect that he seeks a peace deal that will make him an Iranian strongman.<\/p>\n Ahmad Vahidi, 67Ahmad Vahidi, in 2024. Credit…Vahid Salemi\/Associated Press<\/p>\n Mr. Vahidi is a former intelligence officer who took over the Guards in March after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes killed his predecessor. A veteran, bellicose general, he previously served as both minister of defense and interior minister.<\/p>\n Mr. Vahidi became prominent in 1988 as the first commander of the Quds Force, which built proxy regional militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon. He is suspected of embedding terrorism in their DNA. Attacks under his watch included the bombing of a Jewish community center<\/a> in Buenos Aires in 1994 that left 85 people dead, and a truck bomb targeting a U.S. Air Force barracks<\/a> in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in 1996, killing 19 servicemen. Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in both attacks.<\/p>\n Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, 69Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, in a photo made available by the state television station IRIBNEWS. Credit…IRIBNEWS, via Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p>\n The head of Iran\u2019s judiciary since 2021, Mr. Mohseni-Ejei has a reputation as a hanging judge who has long used the courts to throttle dissent, including a torrent of recent executions of participants in anti-government protests early this year.<\/p>\n Mr. Mohseni-Ejei was the minister of intelligence during protests after the 2009 presidential election. The public perception of a fraudulent vote fueled the Green Movement, a nationwide wave of demonstrations that his ministry helped squash through imprisonment, torture and executions. He was a target of sanctions by both the United States and the European Union.<\/a><\/p>\n Hossein Taeb, 63Hossein Taeb, in a photo made available by the Iranian news agency Tasnim. Credit…Hamed Malekpour\/Tasnmi, via Agence France-Presse \u2013 Getty Images<\/p>\n Mr. Taeb is a Shiite Muslim cleric who ran the brutal Basij militia and then government counterintelligence operations before heading the Guards\u2019 own intelligence organization from 2009 to 2022. Notorious for crushing dissent, the organization during his tenure also imprisoned for ransom or other exchanges numerous Iranian American and other dual nationals, detailed in reports by both the Etemad, an Iranian daily newspaper, and Human Rights Watch.<\/a><\/p>\n Government violence during the 2009 protests prompted public criticism, with one Parliament member writing in comments published online, \u201cWhen we place management of the recent crisis in the hands of individuals like Taeb, who are more familiar with the baton than with thought, reason and prudence, the result will be exactly this.\u201d<\/p>\n