Fracturing of the Iranian Leadership?

[TimothyC]

Sources: Plan to kill Iran Supreme Leader thwarted
Published December 13th, 2011 - 15:33 GMT

According to informed sources inside Iran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has recently ordered the arrest of a number of prominent members of the Revolutionary Guards. He ordered to investigate them and others, who were not arrested, in a suspected plot to assassinate him.

The sources said that among those arrested and interrogated so far are some of Khamenei's bodyguards. The sources conveyed that those arrested tried to convince Khamenei to visit Mlard missile base in western Tehran on November 12th. It should be mentioned that on that day a huge blast took place in this military base, which killed among others the head of ballistic missiles production and development unit.

Khamenei was assured that the base is safe when he was to attend a launching ceremony of a new missile.

It is said also that Khamenei ordered to investigate his son, "Mojtaba Khamenei," who is considered a leading businessman and close assossiate with many military leaders.

Reports indicate that some of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards were seeking a military coup against the Supreme Leader. Following his death, these officers planned to announce an interim ruling council and declare a state of extreme emergency in the country. This council was expected to be presided over by Mojtaba Khamenei.

Remember folks, Mojtaba was the presumed head of the Basij.

[Thanas]

Does this news agency which I never heard of before have a good track record? Can anybody tell me a bit about their history?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Does this news agency which I never heard of before have a good track record? Can anybody tell me a bit about their history?

As far as I can see, Al-Bawaba is a news outlet headquartered in Jordan. This story also turns up on at least one Lebanese news outlet (NOW Lebanon,) and , and a couple of Israeli news outfits; i.e. the Jerusalem Post and Arutz Sheva. Some of the reports attribute the story to the Saudi news outlet al-Arabiya ... but al-Arabiya doesn't mention this story on their website.

[Pelranius]

Interesting if true. Apparently Mojtaba, despite being the heir apparent, can't wait to be king of the hill.

That is why you don't have hereditary succession in totalitarian republics, folks.

Wonder if A-jad is connected to any of this?

[TimothyC]

Does this news agency which I never heard of before have a good track record? Can anybody tell me a bit about their history?

No clue to be honest. I picked this up after it was covered in last night's Nightwatch.

[Straha]

Meh.

These sorts of rumors circulate all the time. I used to get e-mails from Iranian friends all the time about how they'd just heard that Khameini was about to arrest Ahmadinejad's best friends/VPs/etc, or e-mails about how Khameini had just passed away and the Pasdaran were hushing it up for a week. That last one repeats itself about twice a month, depending on who you're friends with/where you're looking.

I'm going to wait and see for news from a more respected news source. Especially one where we can get some sort of accurate read to the biases/allegiances of the source. (For instance this could, conceivably, be a Pasdaran coup of people deemed to be too close to the Clerical hierarchy/Khameini.) Wait and see.

[Sea Skimmer]

That story sounds not at all credible, bullshit like this comes out of minor middle eastern centric news sites all the time and if something really serious was going on other people would pick it up, its not like a Iran has North Korea levels of sealing off the flow of information. Heck even then we get far more information out of North Korea now then in the past. Iran does have a fractured leadership though, by design and practice the government lacks a particularly clear chain of command and clear reasonability’s behind its executive powers, while control of its split armed forces is especially bad. This does make coups more likely in some respects, but then it also makes them harder to carry out since you can't just take out one person and assume power.

[TimothyC]

Well I'm sorry for posting this then guys. If I could get a lock that wouldn't be bad either.

[Thanas]

As requested. Will be reopened if there is further information available.