Despite Trump's claims, there's no indication Iran's regime has lost power, Western officials and experts say [View all]

Source: NBC News

April 1, 2026, 8:13 PM EDT / Updated April 1, 2026, 10:27 PM EDT


President Donald Trump said in his address to the nation on Wednesday night that regime change has occurred in Iran because all of the country's original leaders are dead. But there is no indication that the authoritarian government has lost its grip on power or that successors to assassinated leaders have made a break with the Islamic Republic’s ideology, according to multiple Western officials, U.S. intelligence assessments and regional analysts.

The U.S. and Israel say they have killed numerous senior figures in the clerical regime since they launched their campaign against Iran on Feb. 28, including the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

Airstrikes have killed Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and one of the country’s most powerful officials; Mohammad Pakpour, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; the ministers of intelligence and defense; and a slew of other senior commanders, according to Israeli officials.

But the regime shows no sign of unraveling, and the people who have replaced senior leaders are known as equally hard-line or arguably even more militant than their predecessors, according to Western officials and experts on Iran.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/trumps-claims-no-indication-irans-regime-lost-power-western-officials-rcna266318