Who Really Runs Iran? Inside the Power Struggle Between President and Supreme Leader

Millions of people line up to elect a president. The winner takes office, appoints ministers, manages the economy, and speaks for the country on the world stage. And yet, in Iran, the president is not the most powerful person in the room — not even close. The 1979 revolution did not simply swap one ruler for another. It built a different constitutional model, one that placed elected republican institutions alongside a principle of religious leadership embedded inside the state itself: Velayat-e Faqih, the guardianship of the Islamic jurist. That principle takes institutional form in the office of the Supreme Leader. In this episode of Political Anatomy: Article 57: three branches that operate separately — inside a leadership framework placed above all three Article 113: the president as the highest official after the Supreme Leader, and the ceiling written into that office Article 110: general policies of the state, supervision over their execution, supreme command of the armed forces, and major appointments Why the president never commands the military — two armed pillars under a single chain of command Article 157: the head of the judiciary appointed entirely outside the president's reach The Guardian Council: twelve members, six Islamic jurists appointed directly by the Supreme Leader Parliament's six lawyer nominees — and the same hand reaching through a different door How every law passes through review before it can take effect Candidate vetting: who decides who is allowed on the ballot at all The Expediency Discernment Council and the national security architecture Comparison with a system where one office holds head of state, head of government, and commander in chief at once Where the chain of power finally stops Political Anatomy explains how political systems actually work: where they come from, how they survive, and how they change. Subscribe for more deep dives into how power really takes shape. #PoliticalAnatomy #Iran #SupremeLeader #VelayatFaqih #PoliticalScience