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In early November 2025, the clerical regime ruling Iran entered another visible phase of internal crisis, as senior officials across the political spectrum publicly acknowledged that the system is facing a severe loss of cohesion, legitimacy, and strategic direction. Parliamentary disputes, elite infighting, crumbling foreign alliances, deepening economic instability, and international condemnation over human rights abuses are converging into what both insiders and external observers increasingly define as an existential moment for the ruling establishment.
Senior Regime Figures Warn of Structural Breakdown
Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and one of the regime’s longest-standing insiders, issued a rare warning during a meeting with academics on 30 October, stating that leading political factions have failed to grasp the “sensitive” and “dangerous” nature of the current situation.
“As soon as one incident occurs, they attack one another and destabilize the national environment,” Larijani said, arguing that political actors were treating a moment of “strategic confrontation” as ordinary politics. He cautioned that if this misreading continues, “it can severely harm the country.”
His remarks reflect mounting concern among state managers that elite fragmentation now poses as great a threat as foreign pressures.
Intensifying Power Struggles in #Tehran Reveal a State Losing Internal Controlhttps://t.co/4Alzx62spt
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 30, 2025
Rouhani and Zarif Attacked on State TV
The regime’s own official media amplified these tensions. State television aired harsh criticism of former President Hassan Rouhani and former Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif, accusing them of “acting in the enemy’s narrative” for questioning the benefits of Tehran’s strategic alignment with Russia and China.
The broadcast re-aired Zarif’s comments suggesting that Russia opposed Iran normalizing relations with the West, alongside Rouhani’s remarks highlighting Russia’s role in supporting UN sanctions. Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf publicly condemned them, saying their statements “damaged strategic cooperation.”
The message was clear: dissent—even from former top officials—is increasingly treated as subversion and a threat to ‘national security.’
#Iran Power Struggle Widens as #IRGC Leadership Change Fuels Questions Amid Growing Political Infightinghttps://t.co/aZ0SgRudnO
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 29, 2025
Media Attacks the Sitting President
On October 29, Kayhan — closely aligned with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — issued a frontal editorial attack on current president Masoud Pezeshkian, accusing his administration of relying on “slogans” and lacking any executable program to address inflation, energy shortages, and wage stagnation.
Kayhan mocked Pezeshkian’s public statements about “what must be done,” saying: “The speaker and the audience of these ‘musts’ are the same person: the government itself. Affairs do not advance by repeating slogans.”
The editorial linked Pezeshkian’s policy orientation to the same “mistaken bet on negotiations with the West” made under Rouhani — signaling that the President is now being framed as ideologically unreliable.
From Parliament to the Marketplace, Crisis Layers Converge Across #Iranhttps://t.co/AozMSSDCQJ
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 28, 2025
Former Regime Elites Break Silence
Mehdi Karroubi, a long-time insider who faced the wrath of the regime’s Supreme Leader following the 2009 uprising and who recently emerged from years of house arrest, issued one of his strongest critiques yet, directly blaming Khamenei for “destroying the economy, culture, security, and ethics” and calling the current crisis the result of that decision.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Sarafraz, former head of state broadcaster IRIB and a long-time security insider, warned that unless structural reforms are undertaken, Iran faces “war, collapse, or chaos.” He added that the regime’s foreign policy “has held the economy hostage,” and that proxy groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthis are now “weakened” and unable to provide strategic depth.
These interventions indicate that even figures once firmly integrated into the system no longer see Khamenei’s regional and security doctrine as viable. The fact that such criticism is now voiced openly — rather than behind closed doors — underscores how far the leader’s authority has eroded, and how emboldened rival factions have become in distancing themselves from the regime’s core strategic direction.
From FATF to Bank Meltdown, #Iran’s Power Factions Clash on Every Fronthttps://t.co/FgEBKUNGBg
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 27, 2025
Foreign Policy Failures Mount
Adding to the sense of strategic collapse, former parliamentary National Security Committee chair Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh revealed that 12 major contracts with Russia — including oil, electricity infrastructure, military procurement, and transport corridors — “never materialized,” resulting in billions of dollars in losses and strategic setbacks.
Falahatpisheh accused Moscow of opportunism, saying Russia withdrew whenever global conditions shifted, leaving Iran exposed.
From FATF to Bank Meltdown, #Iran’s Power Factions Clash on Every Fronthttps://t.co/FgEBKUNGBg
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 27, 2025
A Regime in Defensive Contraction
Across institutions, factions once united under the Supreme Leader’s authority are now openly accusing one another of betrayal, incompetence, corruption, and foreign alignment. None of these disputes reflect concern for public welfare. Rather, they signal political actors seeking to distance themselves from responsibility — and from the consequences of a failing system.
Foreign alliances are weakening, the economy is deteriorating, coherence is eroding, and repression is escalating. The political establishment is turning inward, defensive, and increasingly unstable — while society grows restless below it.
The regime is not debating how to govern. It is debating how to survive.