Iran's shadowy power broker, thought dead with $10M bounty on his head, resurfaces smiling

A key figure in Iran's ruling establishment whom Israel claimed to have killed in an airstrike on the supreme leader's residence in February has been confirmed alive. Ali Asghar Hejazi, chief of staff to the supreme leader and long described as the "shadow power" behind Ali Khamenei's rule, made his first public appearance in four months, renewing attention to Iran's internal power structure.

According to Iran International and IranWire, Hejazi attended the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Mashhad on Thursday, where he was seen conversing with senior Iranian officials.

Hejazi served as one of Khamenei's closest confidants for more than three decades, wielding sweeping influence across the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the Iranian government.

IranWire said Hejazi's role extended beyond protecting Iran's top leadership to coordinating the country's intelligence agencies and translating the supreme leader's decisions into actual policy. Despite his wide influence, he was so little known to the general public that he could walk the streets without a security detail, the outlet said.

Israel claimed Hejazi had been killed in the February airstrike on the residence, but speculation about his survival had persisted after the Department of State offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

His reappearance has raised the likelihood that Hejazi played a significant role in the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader and in the subsequent reshaping of power in Iran.

IranWire noted that while Hejazi had not previously favored a father-to-son transfer of power, he likely exerted considerable influence over the actual transition process. The outlet assessed that he remains at the core of the current regime's power structure.

Hejazi entered the inner circles of power through his uncle's ties to the former supreme leader. He joined the Islamic Republican Party during the 1979 Islamic Revolution and went on to serve as chairman of the Purification Committee and deputy political prosecutor of the Revolutionary Prosecutor's Office, and was involved in establishing Iran's Ministry of Intelligence.

After Khamenei became supreme leader in 1989, Hejazi worked alongside Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani at the supreme leader's office — known as the "Beit" — playing a central role in conveying the supreme leader's directives to the government, the judiciary and parliament.

IranWire described Hejazi as "the architect of Iran's reign of terror," saying he faces charges of ordering the 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina and directing the violent crackdown on Iran's pro-democracy Green Movement in 2009.

The outlet also reported that Hejazi was involved in key decisions during the negotiation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Citing late-night meetings he held with then-parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, IranWire said his presence "was understood as an explicit directive from the Beit." His involvement as this "figure in the shadows" allowed the JCPOA to pass parliament in just 20 minutes without amendment review — an outcome few had anticipated.

IranWire said the Department of State's $10 million bounty on Hejazi signals that Washington considers him an extremely dangerous figure. It added that with the deaths of Khamenei and most of the leadership on Feb. 28, Hejazi has become one of the few remaining figures capable of maintaining balance among the clerical establishment, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and state institutions.

With his survival now confirmed, attention has returned to the real decision-making structure within Iran's power hierarchy. Because Hejazi's influence has always been informal rather than tied to any official title, analysts say his role in shaping the stability of Mojtaba Khamenei's new leadership and the broader realignment of power is likely to be significant.