Can Iran’s new supreme leader make peace from behind the scenes?

Mojtaba Khamenei’s consultations suggest a new system of decision-making is taking shape, but can it deliver a compromise like the 2015 nuclear deal? Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is exercising power without appearing in public or allowing his voice to be heard.

Since succeeding his father in March, he has governed through written statements and decrees, while reports of his meetings with senior officials offer a glimpse into how he exercises power. The meetings announced in May and August appeared intended primarily to reassure Iranians that their new leader was alive and exercising authority.

But a series of four meetings announced within 11 days in October, involving the heads of Iran’s parliament, judiciary and national security establishment, as well as senior military commanders, suggests something more: a new system of decision-making taking shape. The meetings come as Tehran weighs its options between negotiations and renewed confrontation with the United States and Israel.