According to the report, citing six senior Iranian officials, three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and two former diplomats, Larijani has in recent months begun overseeing sensitive political and security matters. The shift reportedly followed domestic unrest in early January and intensifying rhetoric from Washington.
Larijani, 67, a former Revolutionary Guard commander and current head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, is described as operating with the Supreme Leader’s ‘full confidence.’ The newspaper notes that even matters related to indirect negotiations with the United States are being coordinated under his watch.
In one telling anecdote, when U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly attempted to contact Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, permission was said to have been sought through Larijani a detail suggesting where real leverage may currently reside.
Observers say this signals not merely delegation, but a deliberate tightening of the command chain, designed to ensure that no vacuum of authority emerges during a volatile period.
The report further claims that Khamenei has established a four-layer succession framework. For each key military or governmental post under his authority, four alternative figures have reportedly been identified. Commanders, too, have been instructed to pre-select their own successors.
In what appears to be a contingency plan for extreme circumstances, a limited inner circle has allegedly been empowered to make critical decisions should communication with the Supreme Leader be severed.
Such measures reflect what analysts call ‘strategic foresight under pressure’ an effort to safeguard institutional continuity if the country’s upper leadership were targeted.
The newspaper suggests that in the event of open conflict, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf could assume command of the armed forces. Should senior leadership figures be incapacitated, Larijani is reportedly viewed as a frontrunner in any interim arrangement, alongside Ghalibaf and former President Hassan Rouhani.
The report also states that Iranian officials are seriously weighing the possibility that both Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, could be targeted in a potential strike a scenario that has prompted heightened military readiness along the Persian Gulf coastline.
Despite the atmosphere of precaution, diplomatic channels over Iran’s nuclear program reportedly remain open. Officials are said to be preparing for multiple outcomes from a negotiated settlement to direct confrontation.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to analysts, appears willing to support the concentration of sensitive authority under Larijani, signaling internal cohesion during uncertain times.
Political commentators describe Tehran’s approach as ‘dual lane statecraft’ keeping the door to diplomacy ajar while bracing firmly for the storm.
For now, the claims remain unconfirmed by Iranian authorities. Yet the report paints a picture of a leadership not caught off guard, but rather moving its pieces carefully across a tense geopolitical chessboard, determined to preserve continuity whatever the outcome.
