Who’s Running Iran?

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed almost a week ago — so who’s running the country? Will Iranians seek change in the streets, despite the brutal crackdown they faced in January? Could Kurdish militias march on Tehran under U.S. and Israeli air cover? Should Westerners trust exiled oppositionists like former crown prince Reza Pahlavi? Karim Sadjadpour is one of the few people who can answer these questions. On this special episode of The World Unpacked , Karim and host Jon Bateman go inside Tehran’s power structure as the Islamic Republic faces one of the greatest crises in its 47-year history.

You can listen to Who’s Running Iran? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Who’s Running Iran? is an episode from DiploPod by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This episode is 01:02:53 long.

This episode was published on Mar 6, 2026.

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