🖋Hossein Bastani BBC

Masoud Pezeshkian has recently referred to a “six-person team” in the Iranian government, saying that, regarding the current crisis with the United States, they “have the authority to decide and decisions are implemented in coordination with them.”

Following the publication of these remarks in an interview with CBS, Iranian official media have released accounts of the composition of the six-person team, which have largely differed with respect to the fifth person in common, and differed regarding the sixth person. The consistent part of the accounts has often focused on the president, the speaker of the parliament, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces, and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, though some have named the sixth person as the head of the judiciary and others as the foreign minister.

Pezeshkian’s reference to the existence of this team was, of course, important, but it was neither the first time it had been made nor a sign of a key change in the structure of high-level decision-making—for example, the creation of an institution of similar importance to the Supreme National Security Council.

📸President.ir