"...need permission from Khamnei who is now under pressure from both the pro-Ahamdi-Nejad IRGC and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who is vying to replace Khamnei, dying of cancer."
He may be sick, (I don't know. He was rumored to be dying of cancer several years ago), but I don't believe he's incapcitated, and/or bending quite as much to the pressures of Yazdi as you do)
I think he's still in charge and calling the shots, and has plenty of his own loyal followers.
Proof of the pudding will be in the eating, so to speak.
Khamenei may have loyal followers but they are so outgunned (literally speaking) by the IRGC elite forces who side with Ahmadi-Nejad that he is almost, I say almost, a puppet in the IRGC puppeteers hands.
At any point, A-N, who has already basically completed his palace coup, can rise and arrest both Khamenei and Rafsanjani for "corrupting Islam" and "dereliction of duty". The groundwork has been laid for this "putsch" and though the latter two may be wriggling and trying to regain some authority, they don't have any strike forces that can stand up to the IRGC.
So far it has not suited A-H and his group to remove the titular head and the major "old guard" clerics. Come November all this might change. (If we do not change everything a bit sooner, though our State Dept and the EU and MSM in both regions are heading in the direction of appeasement at present).
regards,