Published by the Atlantic
America’s Saturday-night attacks on Iran have amplified an ever more open debate in Tehran over the future of the country and whether Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should remain in power.
In the days leading up to the American intervention, a group of Iranian businessmen, political and military figures, and relatives of high-ranking clerics, two sources involved in the discussions told me, had begun hatching a plan for running Iran without Khamenei—whether in the event of the 86-year-old leader’s death or of his being pushed aside. Constitutionally, the Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics, would need to vote to dismiss Khamenei from his position, but organizing such a vote under current circumstances is unlikely. The leader could also be more informally sidelined, say, by insiders who pressure or persuade him to pass real power to a temporary replacement. The plotters have agreed that a leadership committee consisting of a few high-ranking officials would take over running the country and negotiate a deal with the United States to stop the Israeli attacks.
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