Mirzad Borujerdi

Right, so the supreme leader is the focal point of Iranian politics, and theoretically, based on the constitution, he is supposed to be approved by an 88 member of assembly of religious experts.

And these are mainly sort of elderly folks in Iran.

The joke in Iran is when you ask what is the average age of members of religious experts, people say deceased.

The oldest member of that council presently is 98 years old.

These folks are supposed to be deciding who the next supreme leader is.

Just this morning we got news that Israeli and American bombs have destroyed the headquarters of this assembly in the holy city of Qom.

So we are not quite clear as to how this assembly is going to meet.

Would they be voting online?

Whether Ayatollah Khamenei

had made any recommendation to them that was not made public.

So this is really the most serious crisis of succession, considering the fact that they have to make a decision during wartime with this type of challenges in front of them.

Correct.

Yes, so the Revolutionary Guards really is the body that must deal with any potential unrest sparked by Ayatollah Khamenei's death, the whole succession interlude that we are witnessing right now, and any eventual consolidation that must take place.

This is assuming that the regime survives.

This is also the body that is going to be losing the most.

You know, there is a

phenomena of officers' economy in Iran.

These folks have benefited handsomely from sanction busting.

And so the question right now is that how will they deal with the next supreme leader chosen by that assembly of experts?

Will they exercise veto power if whoever is chosen is not to their liking?