Iran’s new ruler is already a marked guy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has stated Mojtaba Khamenei, who changed his slain father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the rustic’s superb chief, is an unacceptable selection and threatened to assassinate him if he does now not comply with U.S. calls for.
Despite the fact that the superb chief possesses disproportionate energy, he isn’t the one authority. As an alternative, he’s considered one of a number of positions and establishments during which the Islamic Republic’s 47-year-old regime organizes its ruling construction. Beneath is a rundown of ways each and every of those entities purposes and interacts with one some other.
The superb chief
After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the placement and place of business of superb chief was once created by means of the Iranian Charter. It’s in line with the concept that of the Guardianship of the Jurist, or “Velayat-e Faqih.”
Below Twelver Shiism – the sect of Shiite Islam that Iranians apply – the concept that asserts that state affairs must be administered by means of righteous jurists, or faqih, till the go back of the twelfth imam, who is assumed to have long past into hiding in 874 C.E. This idea was once conceived by means of the primary superb chief, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who dominated Iran for 10 years till his demise in 1989.
To start with, the charter known as for the superb chief to be a grand ayatollah and “source of emulation,” or marja’ al-taqlid – the highest-ranking cleric within the Shiite spiritual hierarchy. In 1989, the charter was once amended to permit Khamenei, who was once a midranking cleric on the time, to think the placement from the in poor health Khomeini.
Despite the fact that the superb chief is a life-time appointment, Article 111 of the charter authorizes the Meeting of Professionals to push aside him if he’s deemed politically and religiously incapable or unqualified.
Within the Islamic Republic or ruling gadget, the superb chief is without equal spiritual and political authority. He instructions the militia, supervises the state media and appoints the manager justice, who’s the pinnacle of the judiciary.
Consistent with articles 57 and 110 of the charter, the superb chief units home and overseas coverage and supervises all branches of the federal government, together with the manager, legislature and judiciary. During the Parent Council, he has the facility to vet electoral applicants and veto parliamentary regulations.
The presidency
Whilst the superb chief is the pinnacle of state, the president is the pinnacle of the federal government. After the superb chief, the president is the second-in-command of the manager department. As such, he solutions to the superb chief and executes his decrees.
Each and every 4 years, presidential elections happen with the participation of Iranians a minimum of 18 years previous.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, left, sits subsequent to Perfect Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a mourning rite on July 12, 2024.
Place of work of the Iranian Perfect Chief by the use of AP
If reelected, the president can’t consecutively serve for greater than two phrases. It must be famous that each president has carried out so, apart from for Ebrahim Raisi, who ruled from 2021 to 2024 and died in a helicopter crash prior to the top of his first time period.
Prior to the election, all applicants are vetted by means of the Parent Council, which is managed by means of the superb chief.
Because the chairman of the Cupboard, the president appoints its ministers, pending a parliamentary vote of self belief. That stated, the superb chief has the authority to push aside and reinstate them, at the side of the vp.
Meeting of mavens
In 1979, the Meeting of Professionals of Management, or Majles-e Khobregan-e Rahbari, was once created within the new charter and held its first election the similar yr. Article 111 of the charter authorizes the meeting to nominate, supervise and, if important, take away the superb chief.
On this sense, the meeting acts as a deliberative frame and is legally required to convene a minimum of two times each six months. Its complaints have remained strictly confidential and closed to the general public.
The Meeting of Professionals incorporates round 80 participants. As ayatollahs or mujtahids, they’re mavens in Islamic legislation and workout unbiased reasoning, or ijtihad. All over the Islamic Republic’s historical past, the choice of participants has ranged from 82 in 1982 to 88 in 2016 and 2024. They serve eight-year phrases and are immediately or popularly elected by means of Iranians voters.
On the similar time, and as with different elections, the Parent Council – which is managed by means of the superb chief– vets the entire applicants who practice to run for place of business or input the election, making the method some distance from unfastened and honest.
In essence, the superb chief approves the applicants who’re probably elected to a frame that oversees him. Because of this, as observers indicate, the meeting has now not been identified to noticeably supervise or brazenly problem him.
Contributors of Iran’s Meeting of Professionals meet after an election that made up our minds the composition of the brand new meeting in Would possibly 2024.
AP Picture/Vahid Salemi
Prior to now two elections for the Meeting of Professionals in 2016 and 2024, the Parent Council disqualified masses of applicants. Lots of them had been moderates and reformists who adversarial the superb chief on quite a lot of problems.
As a result, the selection amongst electorate was once in large part restricted to conservatives and hard-liners who recently dominate the meeting.
Parent Council
Consistent with the Iranian Charter, the Parent Council, or Shoura-ye Negahban, has the facility to veto regulations handed by means of the popularly elected parliament. It is usually approved to vet applicants in elections, together with the ones for the presidency, parliament and Meeting of Professionals.
The council consists of 12 jurists and legal professionals who concentrate on Islamic legislation and jurisprudence. They serve six-year phased phrases by which part the participants alternate each 3 years. The superb chief appoints part of the council’s participants and will push aside them at will anytime. The executive justice appoints the opposite part, with a parliamentary vote of self belief.
Because the superb chief additionally appoints the manager justice, he because of this controls the council. On the similar time, the council has been identified to claim a point of company and autonomy, as evidenced by means of the superb chief infrequently ordering it to opposite bans on explicit folks operating for public place of business.
Because the overdue Nineteen Nineties, the council has disqualified a rising choice of reformist applicants, a lot of whom had been at odds with the superb chief over positive problems.
As a result, conservatives and hard-liners, together with the ones affiliated with the Innovative Guard, have an increasing number of ruled the parliament and Meeting of Professionals.
However, the Parent Council has been not able to stop reformists and moderates from collaborating in elections or even successful them, as on the subject of present President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Expediency Discernment Council
In 1988, the charter was once amended to determine the Expediency Discernment Council of the Gadget, or Majma’-e Tashkhis-e Maslahat-e Nezam.
The council’s chairman and different participants are appointed by means of the superb chief each 5 years. The council initially consisted of 13 participants.
The Expediency Discernment Council to begin with acted as an administrative meeting that mediated and resolved disputes and variations between the Parent Council and parliament over law.
Right through the years, and in line with articles 110 and 111 of the charter, the council developed right into a frame that advises the superb chief on home and overseas coverage and technique.
Between the overdue Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, Khamenei relied at the Expediency Discernment Council to cut back the powers of the reformist-majority parliament and force it to approve the manager justice’s six appointees to the Parent Council.
He additionally expanded the Expediency Discernment Council to 34 participants – 25 of whom he appointed – and stacked it with conservatives.
Since 2007 it has consisted of 27 participants, all of whom are appointed by means of the superb chief. Within the mid-2000s, Khamenei delegated a few of his authority to the council to oversee the 3 branches of presidency.
The Iranian parliament in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 28, 2025.
AP Picture/Vahid Salemi
Iran’s parliament
The Islamic Consultative Meeting of Iran serves as Iran’s parliament and is composed of a unicameral nationwide legislative frame. Representatives serve four-year phrases and are elected by means of a well-liked vote.
Along the manager department, the parliament can introduce law or suggest new regulations. That stated, its capability to cross regulations is constrained when the Parent Council construes them as contradicting or conflicting with the charter and faith.
The parliament votes to approve the president’s Cupboard appointees. Along the superb chief, it may possibly additionally push aside them and impeach the president for reputable misconduct.
Since 1979, the parliament has been chaired or led by means of six audio system, together with, since 2020, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a conservative former commander of the Innovative Guard, which serves as the principle armed drive of Iran.
All over the 2024 parliamentary election, which had a traditionally low voter turnout of 41%, the Parent Council disqualified maximum reasonable and reformist applicants. This prepared the ground for conservatives and hard-liners to protected a sweeping majority of 233 out of 290 seats.
It’s within this complicated panorama of people and establishments that Mojtaba Khamenei has been appointed superb chief. Despite the fact that he stands on the pinnacle of the Islamic Republic’s ruling construction, it does now not depend on him by myself.
