5 Men Now Running Iran

The joint U.S.-Israeli campaign has eliminated the Islamic Republic’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and his son and successor Mojtaba has yet to appear publicly. However, the regime remains intact.

The Islamic Republic was designed to outlive any one individual, as it rests on multiple institutions designed to preserve it. In times of crisis, two pillars sustain it: the armed forces, which continue the war and impose costs on the United States and Israel, and the internal repression apparatus, which confronts the regime’s true existential threat, the Iranian people.

Regime survival now hinges on key figures across the parliament, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the judiciary, and national law enforcement.

1. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf

Ghalibaf’s career spans repression, corruption, IRGC service, and ties to Palestinian terror groups, yet he remains unsanctioned and is now leading talks with Washington on Tehran’s behalf.

He began his career by joining the IRGC and rose to become commander of its Air Force. During the 1999 Iranian student protests, he oversaw the violent crackdown in which security forces threw students from dormitory rooftops. He later bragged, “I was among those carrying out beatings on the street level and I am proud of that.” He was then put in charge of Iran’s national police, the regime’s first line of suppression against dissent.

During his tenure as Tehran mayor in the mid-2000s, Ghalibaf presided over multiple corruption scandals, including the channeling of municipal funds and properties to IRGC-linked companies, embezzlement schemes tied to development projects, and efforts to block investigations.

As parliament speaker, he pledged support for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad during meetings with their officials in 2024, and more recently pushed back against compromise with Washington, saying, “We are certainly not seeking a ceasefire; we believe that we must strike the aggressor in the mouth.”

2. SNSC Chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr

Zolghadr now heads the SNSC, the body that coordinates Iran’s military, intelligence, and foreign policy while shaping decisions on war, internal security, and the nuclear program. A veteran IRGC commander, he helped lay the foundation for Tehran’s extraterritorial proxy network that evolved into the Quds Force, and later served as IRGC deputy commander-in-chief from 1997 to 2005, overseeing both domestic and external operations.

He has been sanctioned across jurisdictions for both proliferation and repression. The UN Security Council designated him in 2007 under Resolution 1747 for links to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, a measure later adopted by the European Union (EU). The United Kingdom (UK) sanctioned him in 2023 for nuclear activity.

Zolghadr’s career also runs through the regime’s internal security apparatus. As deputy chief of the Armed Forces General Staff for Basij coordination, he worked directly with the regime’s primary suppression force, and later held senior roles in the judiciary, which institutionalizes repression through arrests and prosecutions. Canada sanctioned him in 2022 for gross human rights violations tied to the regime’s crackdown on protests.

3. IRGC Commander Ahmad Vahidi

As the commander of the regime’s primary military and ideological body, Vahidi is not only directing war efforts but also central to maintaining internal coercion.

As interior minister, he oversaw the suppression of nationwide protests, leading the United States to redesignate him in 2022 under Executive Order 13553 for orchestrating internet blackouts and directing the Law Enforcement Command (also known as NAJA, its Persian acronym) to kill thousands. The EU imposed parallel sanctions in 2022 for the use of live ammunition and arbitrary detention of protesters and journalists.

Washington had sanctioned him in 2010 under Executive Order 13382 for links to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, with the EU issuing similar measures. INTERPOL maintains a red notice for his role in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Argentina that killed 85 people. A Quds Force commander from 1988 to 1998, he is also linked to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. servicemembers, the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, and a 2008 embassy attack in Yemen.

4. Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei

Ejei, a cleric, has served as the chief justice of Iran since 2021 after previously holding roles as head of the Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) and prosecutor general. Iran’s courts and MOI work in tandem to target dissidents and codify repression, with Ejei having run both arms.

Following Ali Khamenei’s death, he sat on Iran’s three-man interim leadership council alongside Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and President Masoud Pezeshkian until Mojtaba replaced his father as supreme leader.

During his tenure as intelligence minister during the 2009 protests, he was sanctioned by the United States, UK, and EU for overseeing the arbitrary arrest of demonstrators, who were then subjected to torture and coerced into false confessions under harsh interrogations.

Iran has recorded rising annual executions since he assumed the role of judiciary chief in 2021, and he now oversees the public hangings of protesters detained during the January 2026 wave, following through on earlier threats to show “no mercy.”

5. Law Enforcement Command Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan

As a veteran police commander leading the regime’s first line of repression, Radan has overseen forces that not only kill ordinary Iranians on the streets but also track, hunt, and arrest them afterward.

The United States sanctioned him in 2010 for his role as deputy chief of Iran’s Law Enforcement Command overseeing the violent suppression of the 2009 protests, a basis later echoed by the EU in 2011 and maintained by the UK in 2020. As repression persisted, Canada in 2024 and Australia in 2026 imposed similar sanctions, all citing his command responsibility for violent crackdowns and arbitrary detention.

His role in terrorizing Iranians is especially critical during wartime, having ordered the arrest of more than 21,000 people during the 12-Day War and announcing more than 500 additional arrests since the current conflict began. He has also preemptively threatened demonstrators, warning that his forces “have their fingers on the trigger.”

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. Samuel Ben-Ur is a research analyst at FDD focused on global Christian persecution. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.