Who is set to be in charge in Iran now that Khamenei is dead? A powerful hard-line military corps

The U.S.-Israeli attack that ended Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s iron-fisted rule of Iran also created a power vacuum in the Islamic Republic for the first time in decades, with a group of clerics convening to cast their votes on who would succeed him.

The U.S.-Israeli attack that ended Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s iron-fisted rule of Iran also created a power vacuum in the Islamic Republic for the first time in decades, with a group of clerics convening to cast their votes on who would succeed him.

While front-runners to succeed Khamenei have emerged, including the assassinated supreme leader's second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, the real power is now likely to be in the hands of the heavily-armed force that propped up Khamenei for decades: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Even if they replace the supreme leader, what is left of the regime is the IRGC. And the IRGC is going to be the last vestige remaining of the regime until the regime is overhauled, either within itself or by external forces,” said Afshon Ostovar, an Iran expert at the Naval Postgraduate School in California and the author of “Vanguard of the Imam,” a history of the Revolutionary Guards.

“Once the smoke clears, if there’s not a complete regime change, then the people who will be in charge of Iran will be associated or the actual command of the IRGC,” he said, noting that his views are not the official position of the Department of Defense.

The Revolutionary Guard demonstrated its fealty to Khamenei most recently by orchestrating the crackdown in January that left thousands of anti-government protesters dead. Now, after his killing, it has the opportunity to seize even more power in the country, some experts say.