The state-run Tabnak media outlet published a piece on April 11 titled “The Wounded but Living Brain; Command Rises Again from Beneath the Rubble.” The state-run outlet examines the extent of the blow to the command force and how the Iranian regime was thrown into convulsions after the killing of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran’s regime, and senior regime commanders during a foreign war.
And its key message is that the regime’s priority is not to address the needs of the war-stricken people but to maintain its hold on power against a restive population that demands regime change.
The state-run Tabnak writes: “Now supposedly there is a ceasefire, supposedly America and Israel are not attacking Iran, but right now is the time for the recovery and restoration of the central command forces, the thinking brains that were deep in the war and have become exhausted and wounded.”
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According to the state-run Tabnak: “War is always recognized by smoke and fire, but the place where its fate is truly written is in rooms no one sees. In days when a ceasefire exists only on paper, inside those same rooms, a wounded brain is being repaired; a brain that, if it functions properly again, can turn the entire battlefield around.”
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The outlet continues: “In the first days of the war, everything happened quickly. So quickly that some decisions were made even before information was complete. The pressure was intense. Not only on the forces, but on the very network that had to decide, coordinate, and respond. The command-and-control network is the place where even a few minutes of disruption spreads its effects across the entire field.”
This issue more directly reflects the killing of Khamenei in the very first minutes of the war and how the targeting of the leader of Iran’s regime affected the entire body of the system; until now the government, and this media outlet as well, have tried to keep this wounded brain hidden.
Tabnak continues: “America and Israel understood this well. For this reason, their focus was not only on physical destruction. They were after the brain. Cyberattacks, attempts at infiltration, disruption of communications, and pressure on key network nodes. The goal was to slow decision-making, or worse, make it wrong. But that is what war is; it never waits for everything to be complete.”
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By publishing tactical themes, Tabnak raises the line and direction for the post-ceasefire period and writes: “Now in this ceasefire, what is happening is not a simple reconstruction; it is a redefinition. It is as if the system is sitting down and rewriting itself. If that same blow comes again, what should it do this time? Where should it be flexible, where should it act independently, and where should it not wait for orders at all?”
Tabnak further writes: “One of the most important changes taking shape in this phase is moving away from absolute centralization. Centralized systems are powerful, but they are also fragile. It only takes one key point to fail for the entire chain to shake. That is why the move toward distributed structures has now become more serious. It means units should not be merely executors. It means that if communications are cut, if orders do not arrive, if conditions change, they should be able to make decisions themselves based on a defined framework.
Alongside this, the issue of communications is like an open wound that must be repaired. In a war where the enemy has invested in surveillance and disruption, every signal is a risk. Every message may be seen, heard, or cut off. That is why networks must be multilayered, flexible, and pass through routes that are not predictable.”
The Wounded but Living Brain; Command Rises Again from Beneath the Rubble
The phrase “wounded but living brain” analytically refers to the regime’s command system, which collapsed in the early stages of the war, especially since Khamenei, the regime’s leader, was killed in the first military blow. But after the 12-day war, because Khamenei knew another war was on the way, he launched the January massacre to close the gap created by internal uprisings, in which thousands of Iran’s youths lost their lives. Also, according to some regime sources and regime commanders, the IRGC had already moved command out of centralized form and had delegated authority at provincial or regional levels so that under any circumstances they would not wait for orders and would strike pre-designated targets.
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Tabnak concludes: “These days, behind the scenes, teams are sitting and simulating different scenarios. If this happens, what do we do? If that node fails, what replacement do we have? If communication is cut, who decides? These are not questions that can be considered in the moment of war. They must be answered beforehand.
For this wounded brain, the ceasefire is an opportunity. An opportunity to breathe, to repair, to become stronger; and if this repair is done correctly, the next round of war will no longer resemble the previous one. This time, decisions will be faster. Errors fewer, and reactions more precise—and in war, sometimes just a few seconds of difference is everything.”
Tabnak deliberately does not address the painful condition of the Iranian people, who are paying the price of this treacherous war that the regime needs for its survival and that burns away people’s lives; and for this reason it must be said that the slogan of peace and freedom is the only powerful weapon against a fascistic and warmongering dictatorship.
Of course, this entire scenario written by Tabnak seeks to portray the ceasefire as a tactic designed by the regime to prepare for the next phase of war. It has deliberately tried to omit the weakness and the depletion of the regime’s forces.
