A hardline faction within Iran's security establishment ordered a July attack on three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz without authorization from President Masoud Pezeshkian or the country's top military leadership, according to an investigation by The New York Times based on accounts from Iranian officials. The strike is reported to have collapsed a recent peace agreement with the United States and pushed Tehran back toward confrontation.
The officials described the episode as evidence of an unprecedented power struggle at the top of the Iranian regime, one in which the country's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has remained largely invisible since taking office.
Attack Caught Iran's Own Leadership Off Guard
Pezeshkian was in Iraq in early July, attending ceremonies for Iran's late supreme leader, when he was informed that Iranian forces had opened fire on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
A Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker caught fire and other ships were damaged in the attack, triggering international condemnation.
Pezeshkian is reported to have contacted the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, General Ahmad Vahidi, in a furious state to demand an explanation. The response he received was striking, officials said: Vahidi himself had not known about the operation in advance, and according to the same sources, not even Iran's Supreme National Security Council had been informed.
Who Is Accused of Giving the Order
Internal inquiries reportedly pointed to Hossein Taeb, one of the most powerful figures in Iran's hardline security apparatus. Taeb spent two decades as head of the Revolutionary Guard's intelligence service and had opposed the agreement with the United States from the outset.
Officials said Taeb argued that Tehran had made a mistake by agreeing to halt hostilities and had pressed the new supreme leader to abandon the negotiating track. He has stated publicly that he does not reject dialogue altogether but considers negotiations unacceptable if they grant what he calls excessive rights to the adversary.
An 'Invisible' Supreme Leader
The deeper institutional problem, according to the report, is that the man theoretically holding final say over Iran's biggest decisions has almost vanished from public life.
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ali Khamenei and his successor as supreme leader, has not appeared in public since assuming the role. His voice has not been heard, there are no confirmed public statements from him, and the authenticity of some written messages attributed to him has been called into question.
Iranian officials said even Pezeshkian himself has expressed doubts about whether certain messages genuinely originated from the supreme leader.
Pezeshkian's Strange Contact With Khamenei
One reported episode involving contact between the president and the new supreme leader has drawn particular attention. Officials said Pezeshkian was driven in a vehicle with tinted windows to take part in a secure video call, during which an intermediary relayed messages on Khamenei's behalf.
Pezeshkian is said to have later confided to a close aide that he was not certain he had actually communicated with the supreme leader in person. He later said he had held a second meeting lasting seven hours, without disclosing where it took place or how it was conducted.
Negotiation or Escalation
Iran's leadership appears split between two starkly different strategies. One calls for returning to negotiations with the United States in order to lift the naval blockade, restart trade and prevent further economic collapse.
The other, backed by the hardline wing of the Revolutionary Guard, calls for further escalation, including more attacks on American targets, warships and energy facilities in the region, to raise the cost for Washington. Iran-aligned groups such as the Houthis in Yemen and armed Shiite factions in Iraq are reported to be involved in this approach.
Pezeshkian Warns of 'Abyss'
Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are said to belong to the camp warning that uncontrolled military escalation could lead the country toward disaster. Officials said the two have cautioned that a broader confrontation with the United States could trigger even harsher American strikes and wipe out what remains of Iran's economy.
The situation is already dire. Iran's currency is falling, inflation is rising, and oil exports have been reduced to zero because of the naval blockade, according to the report.
Hardliners Gain Ground
Despite the warnings, the hardline wing appears to have gained the upper hand in recent weeks. Tehran has intensified its attacks on American naval forces, while the United States has responded with strikes on Iranian oil tankers.
An adviser to Iran's leadership said the war between Iran and the United States has entered a phase of escalation.
The internal power struggle suggests that Tehran's biggest problem may not lie only on the external front, but at the very center of its own power structure, where it is unclear who is truly making the country's most critical decisions.
