Ahmad Vahidi

That's a radical government.

Revolutionary Guards, you've got General Vahidi who's really running the place as leader of the Revolutionary Guards.

We've not even seen the Supreme Leader in the last five months.

You've got a foreign minister, this guy Arachi, who wrote the book on negotiations.

But there are debates and questions about to what extent is he actually giving orders to the Revolutionary Guards or to what extent are they actually essentially using him and keeping him in the dark.

When I look at kind of the top, I'd say top tier of Revolutionary Guard commanders, these are folks who have been around since the 1980s, men like Mohsen Rezaei, Ahmed Vahidi.

It's a small circle of folks.

Ghalibov is another one.

I just can't see them not going even further to obliterate their nuclear program.

And then with the intelligence the Israelis have on who's who, Vahidi is now running the IRGC.

Evidently, the IRGC not getting paid.

Supreme Leader in hiding.

But to your broader point, Matt, in terms of who's sitting in this Politburo of the Islamic Republic in 2026 and about eight months after the death of Ali Khamenei, And that's hardly a secret.

I mean, the individuals we can name include, obviously, Masood Pesachian, the president himself, his foreign minister, Abbas Arohchi, the speaker of the Majlis Muhammad Bagher Qalibaf, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, the head of the Ravushni Guards, Ahmad Wahidi.

These are sort of the top figures.

I mean, if you had to, you know, quickly you get to six, the number six.

They have experience in the Iran-Iraq war.

And I think what we're seeing is the resurgence or the reemergence of the old guard, Mohsen Rezaei, Ahmad Vahidi, figures who've been around for a long time.

They were sort of fundamental and essential figures in the creation of the IRGC Quds Force.

And they've really taken a sort of step forward to running Iran at the moment.

That figure came from CENTCOM and was not independently verified.

IRGC Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi separately warned foreign countries against interfering in Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.

Iran has long denied directing the Houthis.

In September, an Iranian official confirmed to Reuters that Pakistan had delivered a Saudi message asking Tehran to restrain the group, but said Tehran does not control the Houthis.

And he accused Saudi Arabia of helping Washington move oil around Iranian restrictions.

Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, said no outside power had the right to threaten or maintain a hegemonic presence in the Strait.

Yehir Rahim Safavi, a senior military adviser, said Tehran's strategy was to manage and restrict traffic rather than close the waterway entirely.

The diplomatic track told a different story.

You know, Michael, that, that, that's a, a great, uh, thing to point out, and you're right, MBS is now scrounging for more, uh, defenses.

But, you know, uh, uh, with great, uh, institutions like GENSA that, that you have that understand these issues as you were laying out there, I just wanna add to the, the other part of, of that contingent, which is, you know, the Houthis exist because a Iranian general named Ahmad Vahidi stood up the Quds Force in the '90s under the previous Ayatollah Khamenei that had the intent purposes of exporting terrorism in places like with the Houthis and Hamas and Hezbollah before them.

And so here we are today looking at Saudi Arabia and whether or not, uh, MBS has handled this correctly.

But, but there is a tie, is my point.