Conflicting statements and scattered messaging from Iranian officials on Saturday underscored a possible divide within Tehran’s ruling establishment following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian issued remarks apologizing for Iranian strikes on Gulf states. He backtracked shortly after following criticism from other Iranian leaders. Countries in the Persian Gulf reported airstrikes and interceptions early Sunday morning.
Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani gave a televised address to the nation later on Saturday, calling for unity and denying leadership rifts. He also said US President Donald Trump must “pay the price” for war.
The shifting tones reflect deep-seated competing pressures inside Iran’s political system.
While hardliners seek revenge over the killing of Khamenei, pragmatists still hope diplomatic efforts can resolve the conflict, Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, told CNN.
“There have always been factions, rivalries and competition inside the Islamic Republic,” Vatanka said. “That’s true today as well.”
This comes as reports that Iran’s Assembly of Experts is set to choose their next supreme leader in the next day. But the rush to establish a new leader is not necessarily operational. “The Supreme Leader is more of a symbolic move to basically tell the regime base that nothing has changed fundamentally, that the Islamic Republic is still standing,” Vatanka said.
Iran has already established mechanisms to function without an immediate permanent successor. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has effectively shaped strategic decisions for at least two decades, will ensure no immediate personnel vacuum halts operations. They will also play the decisive role in any successor selection and broader policy direction, Vatanka explains.
Vatanka said the choice of the new supreme leader is more about what the IRGC wants to show to the rest of the world and the Iranian public. “It won’t amount to much in practice, but at least they can pretend that they care about hearing people’s expressions of frustration,” he explained, referring to anti-government protests which broke out in Iran earlier this year.