His voice carried weight across the system, particularly in managing Iran's confrontation with the United States and Israel. After the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on 28 February, Larijani struck a defiant tone, signalling that Iran was prepared for a long conflict. The second was a wave of domestic unrest, which began with economic grievances but quickly turned into wider protests seeking to topple the Islamic Republic. Recent remarks by President Masoud Pezeshkian suggest that armed forces units have effectively been given broad authority to act if senior leadership is incapacitated. Iran has delayed public announcements and kept some figures, including the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, largely out of sight. Over time, however, a system that continues to lose senior figures may find it increasingly difficult to function effectively, especially in a country of more than 90 million people.