Who is leading Iran? | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the BBC's Global News Podcast. on YouTube. Today, I'm joined by BBC. Persian's Param Ghobadi. And Param, Israel says it's killed Iran's powerful. security chief, Ali Larijani. That's correct. So, Ali Larijani is the. secretary of Iran's National Security. Council. This is the most important body. in Iran's political establishment that. deals with security issues internally, domestically, and foreign matters such. as nuclear negotiations. But, generally,

Larijani was an extremely important. figure. He was known as a bridge between. the political establishment and the. Revolutionary Guards and the military. side of the Islamic Republic because he. was a politician, however, and diplomat. as well. However, before that, his. background, he comes from the. Revolutionary Guard. Revolutionary Guard. is the parallel army, if you may, of. Iran that is extremely more ideological. and really loyal to Iran's supreme. leader. So, he has that kind of.

background. Plus, he was for 12 years, he was Iran's parliament speaker. Apart. from that, he was the head of Iran's. national TV, television, and radio. You. should have, you know, security. clearance to be able to run that. organization. But, he was Iran's nuclear. negotiator, chief nuclear negotiator for. 2 years as well. And he oversaw the. massacre of Iranian protesters just in. January. And because of that, he was. sanctioned, he was put on US sanctions.

list as a result of that. So, not. officially the leader, but particularly. after the assassination of Ayatollah. Khamenei, in some ways, he is running Iran. That's. a very good point that you mentioned. because after Khamenei was killed on the. first day of the war, many people were. asking, "Who's leading the country?". Well, he was believed to be one of those. people who was actually running the. show, who was behind the scenes leading. the country. So, now that Ali Larijani.

is killed, many people speculate that Mohammad. Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's current. parliament speaker, is probably running. the country plus Ahmad Vahidi, who is. the deputy of Revolutionary Guards and. who has survived because his boss, the. head of the Revolutionary Guard, alongside with Khamenei, was. assassinated on the first day of the. war. And he was in that position for. only 6 months because in the previous. war with Israel, 12-day war, the head of the Revolutionary Guard was.

assassinated, as well. And I notice. Israel says it's assassinated him, but. you are talking about him in the past. tense. We can be reasonably certain, can we? So, Iran has not confirmed that. What we. know is that there was a written. statement issued by him, read by news. anchor, and no audio and no visual, no. video of him has appeared yet. As soon as Israel and or the US. assassinate an Iranian leader, another.

one has to come from somewhere. It's. like cutting the heads off a. mythical monster. But, people aren't. I get the sense people aren't queuing up. to take over at the moment. So, it has. been like that uh before. So, one of the. what something that surprised many. analysts was that after Khamenei was. assassinated, so many commanders on the. first day of the war were assassinated, Iran was still able to shoot missiles. not only at Israel, but across the. region. So, yes, they have decentralized.

their command center. So, apparently, every unit is responsible and they've. received instructions before where to. attack and how to attack. But, if more. and more leaders are being assassinated. in targeted assassinations like that, it it somehow creates fear among the. regime supporters. So, we have to see. how resistant this theocratic. establishment is towards such. assassinations and if they can survive. this kind of assassination. Let's not. forget Larijani comes also from a very.

influential family. It was not only him. He has several brothers who are in. politics. Just to mention one, Sadegh Larijani was. one of those people who was hopeful to. become the next There was rumors that he. was hopeful to become the next Iran. supreme leader, but he could not uh win. that race between uh with Mojtaba. So, this is a theological regime. People are. doing it for ideological reasons. Do. they want to? Do they feel they have a.

duty to step up and take the top job? Or. are they like a lot of human beings. would be in this situation and and maybe. they think this time it's someone else's. turn. So, um I think it's a mixture of a. few different things. For example, we. see when we see that there are so many. assassinations and the leader is killed. and still this this regime is in power. And not only that, but also the. Revolutionary Guards are functioning. So, definitely, they have some base. supporters who are there ardent.

supporters who are ideologically driven, you know, who are ideologically driven. and they are not, you know, disappointed. and dismayed and discouraged to see that. their leader is gone. So, a part of it. is like that. However, definitely, there. is a group among them, as well, that. they are doing it for opportunity. because it's well paid, because there is. a lot of, you know, financial and. economic advantage in being part of that. Revolutionary Guard. So, is it possible. to say who is next in the line? So,

Mojtaba Khamenei has. assumed power for now, but we don't know. he his his whereabouts. We don't know. how well he is, if he's in a condition. and in a form, shape, and form to be. able to run the country or not. But, what we know is that as the war is going. on, so Ayatollah Khamenei was known to. be this ideological leader. But, as we. see as the war is going on and people. like Ali Larijani and his like are. getting assassinated, the regime is becoming more belligerent.

and more and more ideological. So, one. of the things that many people worry is. that this regime stays in power and the. war will be over and they're in power. and this becomes a police state. So, it. becomes from a theocratical. establishment into a police state of. Khamenei dynastic Islamic regime. Benjamin Netanyahu, who Israel's prime. minister, says the Larijani killing. gives Iranians the chance to overthrow.

their rulers. Is that still possible? So, we have to remember that this war. happened only few weeks after nationwide. mass protests in the country that were. brutally cracked. faced with brutal crackdown by the. regime. Thousands and thousands of. Iranians were killed in that brutal. crackdown. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu was hoping the same. thing would happen in the 12-day war. It. did not because when bombs are falling. on your city, it's very difficult to go.

on the street and protest at the same. time, as well. But, this time, because. the Iranian government has prepared for. it. So, they know that there is a. possibility that Iranians protest. So, they have they are openly threatening. Iranians in a way that has never been. possible before and have never been. experienced and seen before. Like, for. example, just to give you one example, the the police Iran's police chief comes. on national TV and says that, "Listen, our our my soldiers' fingers are on the.

triggers. If you come on the street, you're going to be killed. We're going. to do something way worse than what we. did in 8th and 9th of January." So, this. is this these are they're not implying. to kill you, they're explicitly. threatening people that they will be. killed. A news reader on TV says that, "If you come to the street, we're going. to make your mothers mourn over your. graves." So, these are the kind of. things that we have not seen before. In. a few days, we have Persian New Year. called Nowruz on Friday. So, before. that, there is a celebration of fire.

festival. People usually go on the. street, they jump over the bonfire. So, the Iranian authorities have this year. have banned it and said that if you come. on the street, you're going to face. violence, technically. Param, thank you. Param Ghobadi of the. BBC's Persian Service. If you'd like. more from the Global News Podcast, please do click on the link below.