Everyone knows Iran changed its top leader recently. But here is the real question nobody is asking loudly — is the new leader actually running anything?
Let us understand this from the beginning, in a simple way.
On February 28, 2026, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an attack. His second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was quickly made the third supreme leader on March 1. It sounded like a normal handover of power — father gone, son takes over.
But here is where things get strange.
Since becoming the supreme leader, Mojtaba has not appeared in public even once. No speech. No video message. Not even a recorded voice clip. His very first statement as the country’s highest authority was read by a TV presenter on his behalf. He himself was nowhere to be seen.
Iranian officials are saying he is absolutely fine and is “leading the war.” But many people, including US President Donald Trump, believe he may be injured. Some even suspect he could be in a coma.
Now think about this for a moment. If you are the most powerful person in a country that is in the middle of a war, would you stay completely silent? Would you let a news anchor speak your words? Something does not add up here.
This creates one very important question — if Mojtaba cannot talk, cannot meet people, and cannot be seen, then who is actually making the decisions in Iran right now?
The faces you see on television are not the real answer. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei are still appearing in public, attending rallies, making statements. They look like the people in charge.
But think about it practically. During a war, if Israel or America can track a person through their public appearances, speeches, and open movement, would that person really be trusted with the most secret military decisions? Visible leaders are there to keep the public calm and show that the system is still standing. The actual decisions during wartime are made by those who stay completely hidden.
So who is hiding and who is deciding?
The answer sits inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — officially known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC. This organisation was created in 1979 specifically to protect Iran’s religious government. Over the decades, it grew into the most powerful force in the entire country. More powerful than the army. More powerful than the parliament. In many ways, more powerful than the supreme leader himself.
The late Ali Khamenei always trusted the Revolutionary Guard as his strongest pillar. He relied on them to keep the regime alive. And now, with Mojtaba injured or incapacitated, the Guard has stepped in even deeper, quietly taking control of wartime decisions.
The key names behind the curtain include Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliamentary speaker with deep Revolutionary Guard roots. Then there is Ahmad Vahidi, the new commander of the IRGC. Hossein Nejat leads the Guard’s security wing. Majid Khadami heads its intelligence unit. These men do not appear in feel-good public videos. They operate in silence, and silence is exactly where real power lives right now.
Mojtaba himself, even before becoming supreme leader, was not a religious scholar or a popular public figure. He was the second most important person inside his father’s inner circle. He knew the secret tunnels, the secure communication networks, the hidden systems through which Iran’s government truly operated — both officially and behind closed doors. He helped build this shadow system. And now, that same shadow system may be running things in his name.
This shift is important to understand. Iran is slowly moving away from religious leadership toward security and military leadership. The title at the top still sounds religious. But the hands holding the power are military and intelligence hands.
This also explains why Iran is behaving more aggressively and showing zero interest in compromise or diplomacy. The people now making decisions are not flexible diplomats or moderate thinkers. They are hardliners trained in intelligence work, missile strategy, internal control, and one single mindset — pressure and escalation keep the system alive.
For them, the war is not a problem to be solved through talking. It is proof that only force and strict ideology can protect what they have built.
The bottom line is this — in Iran today, the person with the title may be lying in a hospital bed, and the people without any visible title may be running an entire country and a war. The throne has a name on it. But the real king is nowhere on camera.
When a government stays this silent, the silence itself is the loudest answer.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own and do not reflect those of News24)