As Iran holds week-long funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, the political dynamics unfolding behind the scenes point to a striking reality: the succession question that dominated elite politics for more than a decade did not end with his death.
Quran verses recited for foreign delegations attending the funeral of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have sparked debate after Iranian media and social media users argued the passages were carefully chosen to send political and diplomatic messages to visiting officials.
The Iran-US truce has exposed a deeper battle inside Tehran, where public rifts over censorship, negotiations and the system’s future point to a survival debate that could reshape or further destabilize the regime, experts told the Eye for Iran podcast.
As Ali Khamenei’s coffin is carried through days of state-orchestrated mourning, the Islamic Republic is trying to recast a humiliating wartime death as martyrdom, continuity and power, and repair a system wounded by war and public distrust.
Iranian hardliners have accused the country's negotiators of compromising Tehran’s authority over the Strait of Hormuz, claiming a recent understanding with the United States has pushed international shipping toward what they call a US-backed Omani route.
A senior aide to President Masoud Pezeshkian has turned Iran’s dispute over the US memorandum into a fight over authority, arguing that Supreme Leader’s views are subject to expert review within the state’s decision-making bodies rather than implemented automatically.
A state-TV commentator’s claim that factions want to dissolve the IRGC has revived debate over Iran’s dual military structure, the Guards’ expanding political and economic role, and whether the army-IRGC system remains an asset after a war that exposed its reach and costs.
Iran’s ultra-hardliners have escalated their campaign against the US-Iran memorandum, accusing Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and President Masoud Pezeshkian of forcing through a deal they say amounts to a “coup” against the position of the slain Supreme Leader.
Since becoming Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei has repeatedly used ba’sat, a term rooted in divine mission, to cast Iranians not just as citizens but as a force tasked with carrying forward the Islamic Republic’s project at home and beyond.
Intermittent US-Iran escalations are giving Iran's anti-US hardliners fresh ammunition, strengthening their case against diplomacy and putting the country's pro-negotiation camp under growing pressure.
Iran is preparing an unprecedented security operation for the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking to prevent a repeat of the deadly crowd crushes that marred the burials of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 and General Ghasem Soleimani in 2020.
The return of Iranian-American academic Hooshang Amirahmadi, a longtime advocate of US-Iran normalization, has stirred debate in Tehran, with establishment media divided over the merits of welcoming him back and the signal his visit sends.
A mourning site set up near the place where Ali Khamenei was killed has been shut down after shroud-wearing ultra-hardliners turned it into a three-day sit-in, exposing a widening rift inside Iran’s loyalist camp over how to use the slain leader’s memory.
Iranian daily Shargh says Iran’s banking system is trapped in a familiar cycle: cyberattack, service collapse, public confusion, brief official statements and a gradual return to normal without any clear report on what failed or who was responsible.
Iran's Ashura commemorations have again become a stage for competing political narratives, with government supporters and opponents alike using Shi'ite mourning rituals to advance sharply different messages.
Iran’s negotiators have opened a renewable 60-day clock. Its factories may not have that long. The Chamber of Commerce’s own PMI survey shows warehouses emptying, orders drying up and production lines at risk of stoppage within months.
Many Iranians fear that a diplomatic opening with the United States could come at the cost of renewed social restrictions at home, as reports of stricter hijab enforcement begin circulating following the recent war.
President Masoud Pezeshkian's unusually blunt remarks about Iran's economic crisis have intensified infighting over Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's position on the US-Iran agreement.
After Donald Trump said Iran has “a hunger problem” and JD Vance said unfrozen Iranian assets could help “feed the Iranian people,” Iranians pushed back, saying the country’s real crisis is repression, corruption and the fight for freedom, not hunger.
Iranian hardliners have sharply criticized a government-linked report that warned prolonged nightly pro-state gatherings could obstruct diplomacy, exposing a growing dispute over the role of street mobilization in postwar Iran.
The recent war between Iran and the United States has left Tehran facing a diplomatic challenge that extends well beyond Washington: rebuilding trust with Arab neighbors unsettled by weeks of regional instability.
A message attributed to Iran’s Supreme Leader suggesting he had reservations about the agreement with the United States has sparked a fierce debate in Tehran, with hardliners and moderates offering sharply different interpretations of its meaning and implications.