Heres whos really leading Iran with supreme leader MIA and top commanders killed in strikes

Seventeen days — that’s how long the latest leader of Iran lasted.Ali Larijani just became the de facto head of the oppressive Islamic regime after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed by Israeli missiles from space on Feb.

28, Larijani was killed Tuesday in targeted strikes that also took out the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ brutal Basij militia.They are just the latest hardline leaders killed since the start of the war.Others include the head of Iran’s National Defense Council, the commander of the IRGC, the defense minister and the intelligence chief.Since then, Iran’s clerics elected Khamenei’s “probably gay” son Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader — but he’s not been seen in public since the strike that killed his father, wife and son.

Even President Trump said he’s not sure whether Mojtaba is alive or dead.All of this begs the question — who’s really running Iran? The answer, according to observers of the Islamic Republic appears, increasingly, to be hardline IRGC commanders, who are going to pick even more hardliners.Just as Khamenei’s replacement was another Khamenei, Larijani’s replacement is likely to be another Larijani, experts told The Post.Ali Larijani’s brother Sadiq Larijani is among the favorites to replace his brother and lead Iran while Mojtaba remains hidden from the public eye, said Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute in Israel.“He might be a candidate because the IRGC would want a hardliner.They need someone who will go with them who will move with them, who will collaborate with them,” Carmon said.

“He’s not a competitor with them.He will work with them,” he added.Janatan Sayeh, an analyst on Iran at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, also said Sadiq would be the likely candidate given his role as the chair of Tehran’s Expediency Discernment Council, a body that advises the supreme leader.His rank as a grand ayatollah w...