\n The hostility directed at top officials during the funeral <\/a>reflects a theory that has been gaining traction within the Islamic Republic\u2019s most radical factions for months: that Iran\u2019s wartime leaders who negotiated and signed the agreement <\/a>with Washington are staging a soft coup against the Islamic Republic and its revolutionary ideals while the new supreme leader remains largely invisible for fear of his life <\/a>\u2013 or, as some have suggested, because he is incapacitated.\n <\/p>\n \n The hardline factions that attended the funeral in large numbers <\/a>believe that instead of avenging Khamenei\u2019s killing, Iranian officials have surrendered by signing an agreement that defies the orders of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader\u2019s son and successor. But Khamenei has remained hidden from public view<\/a>, neither addressing the nation directly nor visibly asserting his authority, even as officials negotiate or govern in his name.\n <\/p>\n \n Hardliners have accused Iran\u2019s visible leadership \u2013 those running and representing the country as Khamenei remains in hiding \u2013 of plotting to consolidate power by suspending parliament, defying his orders in negotiations and attempting to disperse the nightly street rallies that had become a potent power base for fundamentalists.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWarning to the people of Iran: Is a coup on the way??\u201d Mahmoud Nabavian, an outspoken radical lawmaker, asked on X days before Khamenei\u2019s funeral.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn these moments of farewell to the martyred Imam (Khamenei), we raise the banner of vengeance for his blood and stand firm against the coup,\u201d he wrote days later.\n <\/p>\n \n In Mojtaba\u2019s absence, chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf<\/a>, Pezeshkian <\/a>and Araghchi <\/a>have become the most visible faces in charge of post-war Iran. Without access to the new supreme leader, hardliners who are unhappy with their performance have instead accused them of plotting a coup, Arash Azizi, a US-based Iran expert and author of the book \u201cWhat Iranians Want,\u201d told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMojtaba\u2019s continued absence means that they don\u2019t have access to him and also that Ghalibaf and allies are effectively in charge of the country\u2026 the ultra-hardliners have thus accused Ghalibaf and Pezeshkian of plotting a \u2018coup\u2019 against Mojtaba,\u201d Azizi said.\n <\/p>\n \u2018Us, the blade and your throat\u2019<\/p>\n \n Despite widespread calls for wartime unity across Iran, <\/a>the weeklong grand funeral for Khamenei, killed in late February in Israeli airstrikes coordinated with the United States, became a powerful showcase for the Islamic Republic\u2019s most hardline supporters. They used the occasion to amplify demands to avenge their leader through renewed war with Washington and to declare their rejection of any agreement with Trump.\n <\/p>\n \n Their wish now appears to have been fulfilled. A fragile ceasefire between Iran and the US all but collapsed this week <\/a>after the Revolutionary Guards launched attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz to assert control over the waterway. That prompted retaliatory strikes by Washington and fresh demands by Iranian hardliners to scrap the truce.\n <\/p>\n \n In the weeks before hostilities broke out, hardliners turned their fury on the leaders who signed the deal with the US.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMr President, if the leader\u2019s conditions are not fulfilled, then it will be us, the blade and your throat,\u201d Mohammad Ali Bakhshi, a security-linked \u201cMaddah\u201d<\/a> \u2013 or religious singer who is loyal to the Iranian regime \u2013 warned Pezeshkian during a ceremony. \u201cWe will bring hell upon you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The open threat to kill the president was widely criticized, but Bakhshi is not known to have faced any legal repercussions.\n <\/p>\n \n Other officials under hardline scrutiny include Iran\u2019s chief negotiator with the US, Ghalibaf, <\/a>a former Revolutionary Guard commander with deep political experience whose credentials enabled him to step up and take charge during the war, emerging as the regime\u2019s de-facto lead operator with broad acceptability.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey are trying to elevate the role of the Supreme Council for National Security while diminishing the role of the supreme leader and parliament,\u201d Kamran Ghazanfari, a hardline parliamentarian, said in a video statement early July, referring to the council now deciding the country\u2019s most sensitive wartime <\/a>affairs. \u201cThis is the political coup they have designed and are carrying out step by step.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n On Tuesday, Nabavian, the hardline lawmaker who fiercely opposes the agreement and has been one of the leading voices warning of a \u201ccoup,\u201d was removed from his position on the parliament\u2019s National Security Commission, along with another parliamentarian critical of the deal.\n <\/p>\n \n Nabavian, who was part of Iran\u2019s negotiating delegation before turning against the talks and attempted to derail the agreement by leaking the text to the media before it was signed last month, claimed that Iran\u2019s negotiating team were defying the supreme leader\u2019s red lines in their talks with the US. CNN could not reach Nabavian for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n He and others echo the views of \u201cJebhe-ye Paydari\u201d (the Endurance Front) whose hardline members are often described by observers as \u201cSuper Revolutionaries.\u201d They see themselves as the guardians of the values of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-Western monarch and established an Islamic theocracy.\n <\/p>\n \n Experts say Iran\u2019s visible leaders are actively trying to marginalize them.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing Ghalibaf exerting influence to sideline these hardline elements,\u201d Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told CNN. \u201cThey are too costly for the system and they\u2019re bringing their rivalries out in the open especially as the situation in Iran becomes unstable.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Their numbers are small, but they hold influential positions across the country, including in parliament and at the national broadcaster IRIB, which launched its own campaigns against the president.\n <\/p>\n![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ap26195524063022.jpg\")
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