In the wake of the 12-day conflict with Israel, Tehran has launched a new “Defense Council” aimed at bolstering its badly weakened defense systems.
Ali Larijani, a top advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei whose family was dubbed by Time Magazine “the Kennedys of Iran,” will likely be appointed secretary of this new body, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps affiliated Fars News Agency said Saturday.
The goal is to beef up the Islamic Republic’s defense capabilities — which were rocked during the war — the news agency claimed, though details remain sparse.
Critics inside Iran say the reshuffling comes after the Ayatollah reportedly lost trust in military leadership following the 12 days of fighting, which saw Israel covertly infiltrate Iran to obliterate nuclear and military facilities, while reportedly using Iran’s cellular network against itself to disable its air defense systems.
The US also seriously damaged three of Tehran’s top nuclear plants, including the heavily secured Fordhow site.
“The Supreme Leader is seeking to centralize control by inserting loyal operatives deeper into every tier of the defense and intelligence structure,” wrote the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of Iranian dissident groups.
“The leadership vacuum is growing. The regime is recycling familiar loyalists, because there is no one left to trust.”
More than 30 Iranian commanders and 11 of the regime’s top nuclear scientists were killed during the nearly two weeks of conflict between Israel and Iran in June.
Dissidents have accused the regime of draining national resources on nuclear weapons development at the expense of civilian infrastructure — with water shortages escalating and public anger mounting.
“The regime is not building new institutions to protect the Iranian people — it is creating new tools to suppress them,” said the NCRI.
Larijani has been a vocal proponent of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, warning in April that the US bombing of the Islamic Republic — which came to fruition in a stealth June 21 mission — would push Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.
“Iran does not want to do this, but it will have no choice,” he said at the time.
Iran’s foreign minister this week vowed this wee to purse nuclear enrichment.
“Iranians have never bowed down before any foreigners,” Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. “Our enrichment facilities are severely damaged, but our determination is not.”
The US airstrikes on Iran — on the ninth day of the war — reportedly set back the regime’s nuclear program close to two years, according to the Pentagon.
