This does not mean that we are witnessing a traditional military coup, nor is there sufficient evidence to assert that. But the concentration of the instruments of power in the hands of a narrow military and security circle could redraw the relationship between the religious establishment and the Revolutionary Guard. In that case, the Islamic Republic could gradually shift from a system led by clerics and protected by the military establishment to one in which the military establishment has the heavier say, while maintaining the religious cover that serves its legitimacy.
