Iran’s leaders are fighting each other almost as much as they’re battling the West, with some senior politicians scrambling to save US talks while the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leans into the renewed war, regional sources told The Post.
With Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei out of public view, there’s no one left to force the rival factions back into line — meaning the future of the conflict may now be decided by a power struggle in Tehran, not by Washington.
The growing divide has exposed what the sources describe as two competing centers of power inside Tehran: civilian leaders trying to preserve a fragile diplomatic track and military hardliners determined to keep up pressure through confrontation.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf want to keep dialogue with the US alive and prevent the fighting from spiraling into another full-scale regional war, the sources said.
But their authority has steadily eroded, one regional source familiar with Iran’s internal dynamics told The Post.
“They can sign [agreements], but they can’t stop the IRGC from acting or parliament from legislating around them,” the person said.
Instead of winning internal political battles, the IRGC has increasingly created “facts on the ground” through military action, the source said, while hardline lawmakers move afterward to enshrine those actions into law.
“The hardliners don’t need to win internal arguments,” the source said. “They create facts on the ground … and get parliament to legalize them after the fact.”
“The shift is real — now it’s becoming law, which is much harder to reverse.”
That distinction — between the politicians publicly speaking about diplomacy and the security establishment making decisions on the battlefield — is key, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program.
“Yes, there are politicians who occasionally come out, including even Iran’s foreign minister, who talk about dialogue,” Taleblu told The Post. “But those driving the train, those with their finger on the trigger, those making some of the most important decisions continue to talk and act like escalation is what will secure their survival, not engagement.”
While Tehran has historically balanced diplomacy and military pressure simultaneously, Taleblu said recent events suggest the regime is increasingly betting on confrontation.
“There is obviously a divide in Iran,” he said. “But we have to make sure that when we look at the divide, we pay attention to who matters and what matters — and who and what matter seem to be doubling down on escalation.”
The widening split has become increasingly visible in recent weeks, the source said.
During the funeral ceremonies for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the front rows were filled with IRGC members rather than civilian officials, underscoring the military’s growing influence, according to the source.
What’s more, several televised speeches by Iran’s political leadership have been partially edited before broadcast instead of running live — raising further questions about who controls the country’s public messaging, the person added.
