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... While Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei assumed the highest office of supreme leader after the killing of his father and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf has taken the spotlight in negotiations, the rise of Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi may prove most consequential of all the many shifts taking place within Iran's complex internal power dynamics.

Vahidi was named head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) upon the killing of his predecessor, Mohammad Pakpour, in the opening stages of the U.S.-Israeli war launched against Iran two months ago. It's a position that poises him as a top target, with Pakpour having only taken the role after the slaying of former IRGC chief Hossein Salami by Israel during the 12-Day War in June of last year.

But Vahidi's credentials are unique. In addition to having previously served as deputy IRGC commander, interior minister under former President Ebrahim Raisi and defense minister under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vahidi served as a founding chief of the elite Quds Force, later led by Major General Soleimani until his death in a 2020 U.S. strike ordered by Trump.

Today, with the Islamic Republic facing its most serious test since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War during which the IRGC and its Quds Force were forged, "Ahmad Vahidi is the one calling the shots," Kamran Bokhari, a strategic forecaster and senior resident fellow at the Middle East Policy Council who has written extensively on the internal evolution of Iran's leadership, told Newsweek. ...

One of the goals that Pres Trump said going into his unprovoked war with Iran was "regime change."

At the time, he noted that the people of Iran would rise up and overthrow the current Iranian regime.

Unfortunately, that uprising did not happen, but what did happen is that the same regime seems to still be in place, with some changes that may result in a far more hardline regime.