Iran hard-liners tighten grip as war with US enters sixth month

Iran has elevated loyal hard-line commanders and clerics as the war with the US drags on. The reshuffle signals readiness for a longer conflict and a tougher clampdown on domestic unrest.Image used for representational purposes onlySix months into the war, Iran’s leadership has consolidated around a group of hard-line military commanders and clerics who appear prepared for a prolonged confrontation with the United States and are also focused on preventing unrest at home. The shift stands in sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump’s early hopes of toppling the Islamic Republic and his later claims that “regime change” had brought more compromising officials to the fore.The new leadership appears to have little faith in any agreement with Trump after Iran came under attack twice while talks were under way. It may also be preparing for another assault once the US replenishes its interceptor supplies. At the same time, an American blockade and Trump’s plans for fresh sanctions are threatening to deepen Iran’s economic troubles, prompting warnings from Tehran of a wider response.Among the clearest signals of the new direction was the appointment of Mohsen Rezaei as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Rezaei said last weekend, “If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner.” In a post on X, he added that “if the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported” from the Persian Gulf.Rezaei’s appointment came in a recent set of decrees issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, formally setting Iran’s new senior leadership, including top military posts. Khamenei’s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of the country’s top leadership were killed in the US and Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28. The 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public or appeared in video or audio since those strikes. He is believed to have been wounded, though his absence may also reflect the heavy security around him as a likely target for Israel. One of the most closely watched appointments was that of Hossein Taeb as head of the Basij, the Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer street force that played a major role in crushing January’s nationwide protests, when thousands were killed. Taeb, a hard-line cleric and longtime intelligence chief, had also led one of the first major crackdowns on protests in 2009. His return to the Basij has been seen as a sign that the leadership wants to prevent any fresh unrest as anger over the economy grows.With the appointments announced on August 11 and 12, Khamenei has surrounded himself with longstanding personal allies such as Rezaei and Taeb. Sascha Bruchmann of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East office in Bahrain described them as “a clique of older senior officers who’ve served together over the last decades”. Rezaei, 71, led the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard through much of its early years, including the entire 1980-1988 war with Iraq, and remained in charge until 1997. Since 2009, he has repeatedly contested the presidency as a hard-line candidate. Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, 68, was confirmed as head of the Guard after serving as acting commander following the killing of his predecessor alongside the elder Khamenei. Also confirmed in their roles were the acting commander of the Guard’s naval forces, General Ali Ozmaei, and military chief of staff General Ali Abdollahi. Bruchmann, noting that Rezaei had once commanded Vahidi, said the emphasis appeared to be on unity. “It looks like internal cohesion, as in hard core people are being pulled into the inner circle,” he said.Some analysts and political figures, however, have pointed to arguments within Iran over whether to escalate further. Homayoun Falakshahi, top oil analyst at Kpler, said the appointments of Rezaei and Vahidi showed “greater influence for officials associated with a tougher stance”. Even so, he said escalation was not certain, and Iran could struggle to “escalate enough to restore deterrence without triggering retaliation that leaves it worse off”. A ceasefire reached in June quickly collapsed amid further exchanges of strikes, and Iran has since demanded the release of billions in frozen assets under that deal, along with formal authority over the Strait of Hormuz.President Masoud Pezeshkian has remained among the most prominent advocates of a negotiated outcome, with his allies arguing that Iran risks pushing too far while the economy weakens. “It would be better to bring the war to an end, since today we enjoy power and dignity and the entire world approved our victory, and the US is hated,” Pezeshkian said last week. He has also defended the June ceasefire deal against accusations from hard-liners that it gave away too much. Rezaei, unlike ultra-hard-liners who reject talks altogether, has left the door open to an agreement if Washington changes course. On Monday, he told Pakistani mediator General Asim Munir that the US should “change its attitude and take practical action about implementing the conditions” of the ceasefire deal.Tehran-based political analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi said there were “serious differences over the future path of the country”. Writing in the newspaper Hammihan, which backs Pezeshkian, he said hard-liners oppose normalisation with the US because “their survival depends on the existence of conflict and hostility”.So far, there has been no sign of fresh protests even as many Iranians struggle more to afford basic staples. Bruchmann said Taeb’s appointment suggested the leadership wanted to stop unrest “before it even manifests”, adding, “Putting someone from an intelligence background in charge of the people that would do the crackdown makes sense.” Taeb, 63, led the Basij during the 2009 protests over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, when dozens were killed, and later ran the Guard’s intelligence apparatus for nearly 13 years before he was removed in 2022, reportedly after Israeli espionage successes.The Basij oversee a nationwide network of volunteers present on the streets, in government offices and in cultural centres, with the role of ensuring loyalty and ideological conformity in Iran’s theocracy. In the decree appointing Taeb, Khamenei told him to deepen the Basij’s role in Iranian social life, use new technologies and “promote the Basij across the world against Zionist-American arrogance”, indicating the force could seek closer links with Iran’s allies abroad. The Basij expanded its visibility during the war, while hard-liners have held nightly rallies in Tehran and other cities to build support and deter dissent. In a recent speech, Taeb warned that US pressure on the economy was aimed at creating divisions, saying, “If the mosque becomes the centre of the neighbourhood, the nation will protect its unity, which will be a greater deterrent than any missile.”Taken together, the appointments show an Iranian leadership closing ranks around trusted hard-liners as it weighs how far to confront the US and how firmly to control the situation at home, even as internal debate continues over war, diplomacy and the worsening economy.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 29, 2026 14:38 IST