NEW<\/span>You can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n FIRST ON FOX:<\/strong> A new report detailing the inner workings of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>\u2019s office says the Islamic Republic\u2019s real command structure lies not in Iran\u2019s visible government, but in a shadow apparatus designed to preserve regime control even if the supreme leader himself disappears from public view.<\/p>\n The report<\/a>, Unmasking the Bayt: Inside the Supreme Leader\u2019s Office, published by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and authored by Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, describes the Bayt, the Office of the Supreme Leader, as a vast institutional network embedded across Iran\u2019s military, economy, religious institutions and state bureaucracy.<\/p>\n “It is the hidden nerve center of the regime in Iran<\/a>\u2026 it operates as a state within a state,” Aarabi said in an interview with Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei meets with Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force commanders and Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force officers at the Imam Khomeini Husayniyya in Tehran, Iran on Feb. 05, 2024.\u00a0<\/span> (Iranian Leader Press Office \/ Handout \/Anadolu via Getty Images))<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to Aarabi, the system allows Khamenei to oversee and influence decision-making at every level of the Islamic Republic, including nuclear policy, war planning and internal security.<\/p>\n “This is what gives Khamenei absolute control. It\u2019s not the visible state, this is the invisible state,” he said.<\/p>\n The report estimates roughly 4,000 people operate inside the Bayt\u2019s core structure, with tens of thousands more working through affiliated institutions across the country.<\/p>\n “There\u2019s around 4,000 close employees\u2026 think of them as commissars\u2026 the real policymakers,” Aarabi said. “Beyond that, the Bayt\u2019s umbrella has 40,000 individuals working for it\u2026 entrenched at every single layer of policy, every single state entity.”<\/p>\n The report maps a tightly controlled inner circle at the top of the Bayt, including Khamenei\u2019s sons, particularly Mojtaba Khamenei, who is described as operating like a “mini-supreme leader” within his father\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n It details how the structure reaches directly into Iran\u2019s military chain of command, with senior promotions requiring approval from the Supreme Leader\u2019s office and parallel counterintelligence bodies monitoring loyalty across the armed forces. The Bayt, the report says, also plays a decisive role in nuclear negotiations and wartime decision-making, ensuring ultimate authority remains concentrated around the supreme leader.<\/p>\n The network, Aarabi said, effectively duplicates state ministries inside Khamenei\u2019s office, allowing direct oversight and ideological enforcement across government agencies, universities and cultural institutions.<\/p>\n TRUMP ISSUES STERN IRAN WARNING AS TEHRAN ANGRILY REACTS TO SPEECH AMID MUTED WORLD REACTION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Military members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in western Tehran, Iran<\/span> (Morteza Nikoubazl\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The report also outlines how the Bayt sustains regime durability through control of the economy, religious institutions and the education system. Networks of foundations and conglomerates tied to the supreme leader oversee major sectors of Iran\u2019s economy, while clerical institutions, universities and cultural bodies are monitored by embedded representatives tasked with enforcing ideological compliance and suppressing dissent.<\/p>\n “Think of the Bayt as the nucleus of the core power of the regime,” Aarabi said.<\/p>\n The findings come amid renewed speculation about Khamenei\u2019s health and reduced public visibility, as well as growing regional tensions and the possibility of military confrontation<\/a> involving Iran.<\/p>\n Aarabi pushed back on suggestions that Khamenei\u2019s absence from public appearances signals weakening authority or internal fragmentation.<\/p>\n “We saw this during the 12-day war<\/a>\u2026 even if he is hiding in a bunker, he is in full control. The Bayt has been tightening Khamenei\u2019s grip on power,” he said.<\/p>\n The structure, he argued, was deliberately built to function even without the supreme leader physically present.<\/p>\n “Even if he is eliminated, the Bayt as an institution enables the supreme leader to function,” Aarabi said. “Think of the supreme leader as an institution rather than just a single individual.”<\/p>\n The report places the Bayt at the<\/a> top of Iran\u2019s power hierarchy, above the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the formal government.<\/p>\n PRESIDENT TRUMP\u2019S IRAN WARNING IS SERIOUS \u2014 BUT AMERICANS NEED THE FULL FACTS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pictured sitting next to senior military official in Iran.<\/span> (Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n “The Bayt is the core apparatus\u2026 the strategic policymaking body that is driving the ballistic missile program, the nuclear program<\/a>, [and] regional destabilization,” Aarabi said.<\/p>\n The implications, he added, are significant for policymakers in Washington and across the region, particularly as the U.S. weighs options for confronting Iran\u2019s nuclear program and regional activities.<\/p>\n “Eliminating Khamenei in isolation on its own is not enough\u2026 you have to dismantle this extensive apparatus that he has created,” Aarabi said.<\/p>\n Instead, any effort to weaken the regime would require targeting the broader institutional structure surrounding the supreme leader, not just the individual at its center.<\/p>\n![\"IRGC\"](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1200\/675\/irgc-iran-protests.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
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