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A chronic delay within the burial of Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, indicators a deepening disaster contained in the Islamic Republic, in keeping with a distinguished Iranian strategist.
Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad’s remarks got here as peace talks between the USA and Iran stalled and inner tensions raised questions on the regime’s stability.
Fortieth-day mourning ceremonies for Khamenei started in Iran on April 9, with authorities withholding details about his burial greater than 40 days after his killing. A 3-day state funeral scheduled for early March 2026 had already been postponed.
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Mojtaba Khamenei, the brand new supreme chief of Iran and second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends a gathering in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 13, 2024. (Hamed Jafarnejad/ISNA/WANA/Reuters)
“Forty-four days have handed, and the regime doesn’t have the boldness to publicly bury Mojtaba’s lifeless father,” Sepehrrad of the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) advised Fox Information Digital.
“That’s an indicator of the concern inside this regime from prime to backside,” Sepehrrad added, earlier than describing how, often, “a non secular regime believes that their lifeless should be buried in 24 hours.”
Khamenei was killed Feb. 28 in a strike concentrating on a regime compound in central Tehran, with a separate strike affecting his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who succeeded him.
Mojtaba is claimed to be nonetheless recovering from extreme facial and leg accidents, three folks near his interior circle advised Reuters on April 11.
Khamenei’s face was disfigured within the assault on the supreme chief’s compound in central Tehran, and he suffered a big harm to at least one or each legs, three sources advised the outlet.
“The 56-year-old is nonetheless recovering from his wounds and stays mentally sharp, in keeping with the folks, who requested anonymity to debate delicate issues.”
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the top of the judiciary and Alireza Arafi, deputy chairman of the Meeting of Specialists, attend the assembly of the interim management council of Iran in an unknown location, amid the U.S.-Israel battle with Iran, in Iran, March 1, 2026. (IRIB/WANA/Handout/Reuters)
He takes half in conferences with senior officers through audio conferencing and is engaged in decision-making on main points, together with the conflict and negotiations with Washington, two of the sources say, in keeping with experiences.
The report got here as Iran navigated diplomatic efforts with the U.S. in Islamabad geared toward easing tensions amid a two-week ceasefire, which in the end failed to supply a breakthrough.
“Mojtaba enter within the broad purple strains of negotiations, even when he isn’t the general public face,” Sepehrrad claimed. “On the finish of the day, for greater than 10 years, he served as his father’s right-hand man and as a conduit to the IRGC.”
“Mojtaba could also be much less rhetorical, much less publicly ideological, and extra operational as a result of his main focus is survival of the regime.”
Iran additionally confirmed Sunday it had no plans for additional peace talks after the marathon summit, the place Pakistan mediated.
“No plan has but been introduced for the time, place, or subsequent spherical of negotiations,” Iranian state information company Nour reported Saturday, citing the nation’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, with no assertion from the brand new Supreme Chief.
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER MOJTABA KHAMENEI ‘MISFUNCTIONING,’ NOT CONTROLLING REGIME: SOURCES
A mourner holds a portrait of Iran’s slain supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (top-L) on March 5, 2026, throughout a funeral procession for members of Iraq’s pro-Iran paramilitary group Hezbollah Brigades (Kataeb Hezbollah) who have been killed in a strike in Baghdad the day prior to this. The Tehran-backed Iraqi group Kataeb Hezbollah stated on March 5 that one in all its commanders was killed in a strike in southern Iraq the day prior to this. (Ahmed Al-Rubaye/AFP)
“Mojtaba is much less the supreme chief within the conventional sense and extra the coordinator of a security-led system,” Sepehrrad defined earlier than describing him as “extra like a security-backed coordinator.”
“This regime doesn’t talk with one unified voice. It communicates by operate,” Sepehrrad stated.
“One channel negotiates, one other threatens, one other punishes, and one other tries to keep up ideological continuity. It’s now a mafia,” the strategist claimed.
“The important thing level shouldn’t be concord however division of labor. What holds them collectively is regime survival, not belief.”
“What we’re seeing now’s deeper: a frontrunner who lacks natural authority and due to this fact governs by way of the establishment that controls drive,” Sepehrrad stated.
On the Iranian facet, negotiations, the analyst stated, additionally did contain “diplomats,” however a wider circle of security-linked figures shaping Tehran’s posture, reflecting the rising dominance of hardline establishments.
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Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and International Minister Abbas Araghchi have been greeted by Pakistan International Minister Ishaq Dar and Military Chief Discipline Marshal Gen. Asim Munir upon their arrival at Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on April 11, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of International Affairs/AP)
“This was a brittle coalition of safety males,” Sepehrrad stated, earlier than describing how Mojtaba is “on the prime, however is closely reliant on the Guards, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, SNSC chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi, Judiciary chief Mohseni-Ejei, and regulation enforcement chief Ahmad-Reza Radan.”
“A number of of a very powerful surviving figures will not be primarily diplomats,” Sepehrrad stated earlier than suggesting that that ought to “change how we must always learn every thing popping out of Tehran.”
“That could be a totally different system from the one many Western analysts nonetheless assume they’re coping with,” Sepehrrad defined. “Twin monitor — tactical flexibility in talks and a harsher repression at residence.”
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“Whereas the regime negotiates to purchase time, scale back strain on its forces, and stop broader exterior escalation, internally, it’s prone to intensify arrests, executions, intimidation, and web controls now,” the strategist warned.
“The regime fears inner unrest greater than diplomacy,” Sepehrrad stated.
