Too Fun to Check: Iran 'President' Tells Counterparts, Don't Target Me, Bro!!

Too fun to check? Yes, probably. However, Masoud Pezeshkian's continued respiration suggests that this explanation may come close to the truth, even if Iran's 'president' may or may not have asserted it. 

Reportedly – and that word means something, considering the ambiguous sourcing in Arabic media – Pezeshkian wants everyone to know that he no longer has any real authority in Iran. He mainly wants the US and Israel to know that, for obvious reasons:

🔴 پزشكيان يتنصل من أي مسؤوليات ويقول إنه "بلا صلاحيات ومنقطع تماما عن الأطر القيادية ولا مبرر لاستهدافه".

دولة خليجية - خاص

أكد مستشار سياسي في دولة خليجية أن الرئيس الإيراني مسعود پزشكيان أبلغ عددا من نظرائه في الخليج العربي ودول أخرى منها روسيا وتركيا أنه "في ظل انهيار… pic.twitter.com/g9W01v27Vm

— أنور مالك (@anwarmalek) March 18, 2026

Pezeshkian disavows any responsibilities and says he is "without authority, completely cut off from the leadership structures, and there is no justification for targeting him."

Gulf State - Exclusive

A political advisor in a Gulf state confirmed that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian informed a number of his counterparts in the Arab Gulf and other countries, including Russia and Turkey, that "in light of the collapse of the constitutional leadership structure in the country and his disconnection from communicating with its components, he absolves himself of responsibility and emphasizes that there is no justification for targeting him."

How reliable is this information? As I wrote this post, no one else has picked up on this story. In fact, hardly anyone is talking about Pezeshkian at all. Last week, Pezeshkian offered apologies to neighboring Gulf states for missile attacks, suggesting that those were mistakes. Immediately after that, the IRGC announced that Pezeshkian had no authority over war operations and that everyone should ignore anything he has to say until after the war. Pezeshkian then retracted his apology, but his neutered status became painfully obvious.  

That brings us to the question of target selection by the US and especially Israel. The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Israel has gone all-in on its decapitation strategy, and that it's clearly working at the moment:

Detailed target lists and battle-damage reports viewed by The Wall Street Journal give an inside look at the enormous effort being deployed to wear them down.

The documents show the effort began in the early days of the war and continues to ramp up. Israel is chasing security forces from their headquarters to muster points then on to hideouts under bridges in an effort to disrupt their activity and show Iranians that the enforcers are being taken out.

So far Israel says it has dropped 10,000 munitions on thousands of different targets, including more than 2,200 related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Basij and other internal security forces. It believes thousands have been killed or wounded.

The advanced technology deployed by Israel and the penetration of Iranian society by its agents are combining to create the greatest threat yet to a deeply entrenched regime.

So far, this has been an incredibly successful strategy. The Israelis have taken top leadership off the chessboard almost at will, starting off with Ali Khamenei and his 40-plus top-ranked regime thugs. In the last few days, the IDF has precisely targeted regime leaders like Ali Larijani, Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, and intel chief Esmail Khatib. Nepo Babytollah Mojtaba Khamenei has not yet been seen nor heard from since his appointment as the Cardboard Cutout Supreme Leader, but if he pops his head up, there is little doubt he'll be next on the IDF's Hit Parade. 

And yet, Pezeshkian is ... still alive. Unlike Mojtaba, Pezeshkian has been seen in public, most recently at the Quds Parade and several times on video. Why? It may just be a question of sequencing, and the Israelis may get around to him eventually. The fact that he’s still around makes Pezeshkian’s target value fairly clear anyway. The IDF has operational targets left within the regime, and that’s where they want to focus their resources, not on sidelined politicians.

There may be another reason Pezeshkian is still around. The US and Israel may want him around as a “designated survivor,” an official of enough heft to negotiate a capitulation when the time comes. He’s probably among the least malignant of the top-echelon leadership in pre-war Iran, with an ability to make the necessary connections after the IRGC collapses … assuming he survives that process. 

That’s one reason to take this report with a large grain of salt. Everyone knows that Pezeshkian is useless. He doesn’t need to remind everyone of it in the hope of avoiding decapitation targeting. He may be the only regime figure that is worth more alive than dead. 

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.

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