The United States should not fall for the wish that any official of the current Iranian regime will somehow be different from the others. This illusion has surfaced repeatedly, repackaged with new faces and new rhetoric, but always serving the same underlying system. Washington and its allies really need to recognize that individuals within the Islamic Republic of Iran do not operate independently of the regime's ideological core -- they are products of it.
For decades, the Iranian regime has played a calculated game. Every few years, when pressure intensifies -- whether economic, political or military -- it introduces a figure portrayed as "moderate" or "pragmatic." This narrative was once built around figures like Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, both marketed to the West as agents of change.
Today, a similar narrative is emerging around Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. A closer examination of Ghalibaf's record, however, exposes the disaster in this recurring assumption. He is not an outsider, reformer or transformative figure. He is a quintessential insider -- a product of the system from its earliest days. Ghalibaf joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq War and rose through its ranks, later serving as commander of the IRGC Air Force, head of Iran's national police, mayor of Tehran, and ultimately speaker of parliament.
The key point is that no one rises to the upper echelons of the Islamic Republic of Iran without undergoing deep ideological vetting. This system is not a conventional political structure where outsiders can get in to reform it. It is a tightly controlled ideological order dominated by the Supreme Leader and reinforced by institutions such as the IRGC. Loyalty to the regime is not optional -- it is foundational.
That is why the expectation of change from within is fundamentally misguided. The individuals are not the drivers of the system; they are its instruments. The structure itself -- its ideology, its power networks, and its security institutions -- dictates outcomes. Without structural change, personnel changes are irrelevant.
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prophecynewswatch.com
For decades, the Iranian regime has played a calculated game. Every few years, when pressure intensifies -- whether economic, political or military -- it introduces a figure portrayed as "moderate" or "pragmatic." This narrative was once built around figures like Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, both marketed to the West as agents of change.
Today, a similar narrative is emerging around Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. A closer examination of Ghalibaf's record, however, exposes the disaster in this recurring assumption. He is not an outsider, reformer or transformative figure. He is a quintessential insider -- a product of the system from its earliest days. Ghalibaf joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq War and rose through its ranks, later serving as commander of the IRGC Air Force, head of Iran's national police, mayor of Tehran, and ultimately speaker of parliament.
The key point is that no one rises to the upper echelons of the Islamic Republic of Iran without undergoing deep ideological vetting. This system is not a conventional political structure where outsiders can get in to reform it. It is a tightly controlled ideological order dominated by the Supreme Leader and reinforced by institutions such as the IRGC. Loyalty to the regime is not optional -- it is foundational.
That is why the expectation of change from within is fundamentally misguided. The individuals are not the drivers of the system; they are its instruments. The structure itself -- its ideology, its power networks, and its security institutions -- dictates outcomes. Without structural change, personnel changes are irrelevant.
More
Same Regime, Different Face: The West's Recurring Mistake In Iran
The United States should not fall for the wish that any official of the current Iranian regime will somehow be different from the others. This illusion has surfaced repeatedly, repackaged with new faces and new rhetoric, but always serving the same underlying system.
prophecynewswatch.com
