Cautious of assassination, Iran’s supreme chief principally speaks together with his commanders by way of a trusted aide now, suspending digital communications to make it more durable to search out him, three Iranian officers accustomed to his emergency conflict plans say.
Ensconced in a bunker, Khamenei has picked an array of replacements down his chain of miliary command in case extra of his valued lieutenants are killed.
And in a outstanding transfer, the officers add, Khamenei has even named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him ought to he be killed, as properly – maybe probably the most telling illustration of the precarious second he and his three-decade rule are going through.
Ayatollah Khamenei has taken a unprecedented sequence of steps to protect the Islamic Republic ever since Israel launched a sequence of shock assaults final Friday.
Although solely every week outdated, the Israeli strikes are the largest army assault on Iran since its conflict with Iraq within the Nineteen Eighties, and the impact on the nation’s capital, Tehran, has been notably fierce. In just a few days, the Israeli assaults have been extra intense and have triggered extra harm in Tehran than Saddam Hussein did in his total eight-year conflict towards Iran. Iran seems to have overcome its preliminary shock, reorganising sufficient to launch each day counterstrikes of its personal on Israel, hitting a hospital, the Haifa oil refinery, spiritual buildings and houses.Iran’s high officers are additionally quietly making preparations for a variety of outcomes because the conflict intensifies and as President Trump considers whether or not to enter the battle, in response to the Iranian officers. Ayatollah Khamenei, 86, is conscious that both Israel or the US may attempt to assassinate him, an finish he would view as martyrdom, the officers stated. Usually, the method of appointing a brand new supreme chief may take months, with clerics choosing and selecting from their very own lists of names. However with the nation now at conflict, the officers stated, the ayatollah needs to make sure a fast, orderly transition and to protect his legacy.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, additionally a cleric and near the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who was rumored to be a front-runner, isn’t among the many candidates, the officers stated. Iran’s former conservative president, Ibrahim Raisi, was additionally thought-about a front-runner earlier than he was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024.
