Inside Iran’s hidden power center: Expert says supreme leader’s office runs a ‘state within a state’ Kasra Aarabi of United Against a Nuclear Iran says the regime's durability lies not in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an individual, but in the institutional machinery surrounding him. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! For Mehdi Ghadimi, the ideology behind Iran’s ruling system is not theoretical. It was something he was taught from childhood. "You were told you are a part a small group