🔶 Who rules Iran? A six-member committee or Mojtaba Khamenei?

🔻A report by Atafeh Chaharomahalian

Masoud Pezeshkian’s recent remarks in an interview with CBS about the existence of a “six-person team” that makes decisions regarding Iran’s affairs, including foreign policy, have raised fresh questions about the decision-making mechanism in the Islamic Republic.

In the interview with CBS during his remarks while traveling to the United States, Pezeshkian said: “A team consisting of six people from different institutions, security forces, members of parliament, and government bodies consult and discuss decision-making processes, and decisions are made through coordination among members of this team.”

He did not name the members of this group, but after these comments, different accounts emerged about the composition of the team.

According to Khabaronline, citing various sources, the names of Masoud Pezeshkian, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei, Mohsen Rezaei, Ali Abdollahi, and Ahmad Vahidi were put forward as members of this team.

In some other accounts, the names Ali Bagheri and Abbas Araqchi were also mentioned. It appears that there is no consensus on the exact composition of this team.

This ambiguity is raised while, under the Constitution, the Supreme National Security Council is one of the main decision-making bodies of the Islamic Republic in the fields of security, defense, and foreign policy, and it is chaired by the president.

For this reason, one of the main questions is whether the six-person team referred to by Pezeshkian is a mechanism separate from the Supreme National Security Council or whether it operates within existing security structures.

Deutsche Welle Farsi has talked with Qasem Sha’leh Sa’adi, a lawyer and former member of the Iranian Parliament, to examine the legal standing of this committee.

📌 Read the full text of the report on the Deutsche Welle Farsi website.