Fox News alert. The clock ticks on a deal with Iran. President Trump says if they don't get one soon and the ceasefire expires, then a lot of bombs will go off. A critical question in all of this is who is really in charge of Iran. The Institute for the Study of War reports that an IRGC commander, Major General Ahmad Vahiti, and his inner circle may now hold the real control over both Iran's military response and the negotiations. So, who is he? He is a seniormost IRGC commander. He's the former commander of the Cuds Force. That's an elite secretive branch of the IRGC. He's a former both defense and interior minister and he's known for hardline views on domestic and foreign

policy. There's an Interpole red notice out for him for bombing a Jewish community center in Argentina and he's under sanctions from the US, Canada, and the EU. Former CIA case officer and senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Rule Mart joins me now. Uh Rule, thanks for being with us here today. So tell me a little bit more about this man Ahmad Vahiti. Yeah, I mean I think it's fair to say that you would describe him as a hardliner. I don't know if he's really more hardline than say Muhammad Ba Khalib, the speaker of parliament, the individual who led the negotiations in Islamabad before and may lead them

again. He's just not uh he's far less colorful. Uh he is a creature of the guard corps. He's known for being fairly cold-hearted. Um you know he survived the Iran Iraq war. That probably is the defining uh moment in his life and the way you should understand him. So he is not one to uh give ground. Tell me the relationship between the IRGC presumably now under his command the military response of Iran and the political establishment of Iran. whatever's left of the mulas and those that lead their parliament. That's an excellent question and it's a

difficult to answer that one accurately I think because uh the information we have of what's going on side of Iran is somewhat sparse. So uh it's natural that in a state of war the revolutionary guard corps the senior commanders are going to become the dominant voices uh inside of Iran. Whether that's you know the case after 6 months after the war is over I don't know but uh you know he's a very important player. I don't think he has ultimate authority. I think still there's a consensual leadership in the country. He has to take into consideration other members of the guard corps and also uh other members of the clerical establishment and the civilian elite. But, uh, you know, he's he's he's

a he's a tough individual. Uh, uh, and like I said before, I would expect him to, uh, you know, uh, be quite willing to continue the fight. Rule, if you were watching just a few moments ago, we had Lieutenant Colonel Scott Man on, and his parting words to me were essentially, I hope everyone is diligent about what is happening here at home, the threats that we might face here in America. There is a story out today of a woman in California. has been arrested at LAX. She's accused of selling weapons for Iran. Her name is Shamim Mafi. She's an Iranian national.

She's a permanent resident, lawful since 2016. Came under President Barack Obama. She's accused of brokering deals for the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, millions of rounds of ammunition between the Iranians and the Sudin armed forces. Um, this of course is not the same thing as domestic terrorism, but it does highlight the type of people that are in this country, sometimes lawfully, sometimes illegally, that have allegiances somewhere other than the United States. This story, is this an illustration of a problem that we have here on American soil? Well, I mean, we've we haven't had very good export controls. That's uh that's gotten a lot better. I mean, when uh cameras first got into the Iranian centrifuge cascades, we discovered that

uh many of their most essential machinery was actually manufactured in Boston. So, uh you know, the Iranians have been uh experts at developing, you know, dualuse import networks. Uh that continues. They've been under sanctions for quite some time now. on the suggestion of whether they may have you know sells black operations in the United States. I remain somewhat skeptical. I think we would have already seen them. Uh and I think there has been a real degradation uh in the two primary intelligence services in Iran, the ministry and also in the revolutionary guard corps and their overseas operations in the west. That doesn't mean they're not lethal, but I think uh they don't have the personnel that they once did, and

they've also probably lost a great deal of his law support. So, it's still a threat, but uh I suspect the FBI isn't paralyzed by that threat. So, just to be clear, you said that their capabilities have been degraded, but you also suggest that if they had those capabilities, you think they would have already deployed them. They would have done a attack on soil if they had the capability to have that attack. Yeah, I think they probably would have by now. I think they would have needed it. It would have made them happy to do it, particularly after the Supreme Leader died, if not before, actually. So, uh, you know, running overseas

networks is much harder than it is in the spy books. Uh, and, uh, they have a great deal of difficulty now moving people particularly into the United States. So you'd have to recruit people that are already here. It's a challenging environment for them and they really have they've operated better in Europe. They operate much better in the Middle East and Asia, but uh you know I you have to watch it but I they're certainly not in the league that they might have been say 30 years ago. All right. Well, thank you for being with us here today. Ro Mark Garrett. Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox