Iranian officials are said to be considering removing their supreme leader from power after the United States waded in to Israel’s growing conflict with Iran on Sunday.
Two sources involved in talks told The Atlantic that officials are now contemplating deposing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but said it’s just ‘one idea’ among many ‘plots’.
‘Everybody knows Khamenei’s days are numbered,’ one official told the American outlet. ‘Even if he stays in office, he won’t have actual power.’
Iranian officials had sought to displace the 86-year-old supreme leader even before the U.S. intervention due to his age and longstanding health concerns, the sources said.
Iran has vowed to inflict ‘serious’ damage in retaliation to the American strikes on nuclear facilities across the territory.
But analysts remain unconvinced that the country has the military might to keep up kinetic action against both Israel and the U.S., with the conflict now in its 11th day.
However, Vladimir Putin today vowed to back Iran and condemned ‘groundless’ aggression against its ally.
The Kremlin last night accused the United States of opening a Pandora’s box with its strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, warning it was gambling with the ‘safety and well-being of humanity as a whole’.
Russia had already condemned Israel’s strikes against Iran, and has said that targeting nuclear facilities risks throwing the region into greater chaos.
Prior to the attacks, the Kremlin had been eyeing a role in mediating between Iran and Israel.
‘This is an absolutely unprovoked aggression against Iran,’ Putin told Abbas Araghchi, who travelled to Moscow on Monday seeking support in mediation over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Putin called recent strikes ‘unjustified’ and added that Russia was ‘making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people.’
The comments came as Israel again struck the Fordow nuclear facility and ‘government targets’ in Tehran, with no sign of the conflict abating.
Khamenei, who last spoke to his nation in a televised address on Wednesday, has hidden away in a bunker, suspending electronic communications in a bid to toughen up security amid swirling assassination threats, three Iranian officials told the New York Times.
But, despite the ramped up protection effort Iran’s Ayatollah has named three potential successors to take over his role in case he is killed, according to reports.
A three-man committee from a top clerical body, appointed by Khamenei himself two years ago to identify his replacement, has accelerated its planning in recent days since Israel attacked Iran and threatened to assassinate the veteran leader, five insiders with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.
Khamenei is being regularly briefed on the talks, according to the Iranian sources who requested anonymity to discuss highly sensitive matters.
He has gone into hiding with his family and is being guarded by the Vali-ye Amr special forces unit of the Revolutionary Guards, a top security official said.
The ruling establishment will immediately seek to name a successor to Khamenei if he is killed, to signal stability and continuity, according to the sources who acknowledged that predicting Iran’s subsequent political trajectory was difficult.
A new leader will still be chosen for his devotion to the revolutionary precepts of the Islamic Republic’s late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to one insider, who is close to Khamenei’s office and privy to succession discussions.
At the same time, the top echelon of power is also considering which candidate might present a more moderate face to ward off foreign attacks and internal revolts, the person said.
Two frontrunners have emerged in the succession discussions, the five insiders said: Khamenei’s 56-year-old son Mojtaba, long seen as a continuity choice, and a new contender, Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the father of the Islamic revolution.
Khomeini, a close ally of the reformist faction that favours the easing of social and political restrictions, nonetheless commands respect among senior clerics and the Revolutionary Guards because of his lineage, the sources added.
‘I once again humbly express that this small and insignificant servant of the Iranian people stands ready to proudly be present on any front or scene you deem necessary,’ the 53-year-old said in a public message of support to the supreme leader on Saturday, hours before the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Khomeini has come into the frame as a serious candidate this month amid the conflict with Israel and America because he could represent a more conciliatory choice internationally and domestically than Mojtaba Khamenei, the five people said.
By contrast, Khamenei hews closely to his father’s hardline policies, according to the insiders who cautioned that nothing had been determined, candidates could change and the supreme leader would have the final say.
However, with the military conflict continuing, it remains unclear whether any new leader could be chosen easily or installed securely or if he could assume the level of authority enjoyed by Khamenei, they added.
Israeli strikes have also killed several of Iran’s top Revolutionary Guards commanders, potentially complicating a handover of power as the elite military force has long played a central role in enforcing the supreme leader’s rule.
Khamenei’s office and the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body from which the succession committee was drawn, were not available to comment.
His son Mojtaba, also a cleric who has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was rumoured to be a front-runner.
But he is not among the selected candidates, officials reportedly told the newspaper.
It comes after Donald Trump raised the prospect of regime change in the country, despite several of his administration officials earlier stressing that US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites did not have that goal.
‘It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
Since Trump joined Israel’s campaign by dropping massive bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning, Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate.
The country said the US should expect ‘heavy consequences’ for its attacks, issuing a threat that its entry into the conflict with Israel will ‘expand the scope of legitimate targets’.
Earlier, a Iranian television mouthpiece warned that up to 50,000 American soldiers will be returned to Washington in ‘coffins’.
State TV anchor Mehdi Khanalizadeh accused Trump of choosing to ‘spill the blood of your soldiers’, before adding: ‘The US president in the Oval Office chose to take delivery of the coffins of up to 50,000 US soldiers in Washington.’
Trump declared last night that ‘monumental damage’ has been done ‘to all nuclear sites in Iran’.
The US president wrote on his Truth Social page that satellite images he obtained showed the Iranian nuclear facilities were ‘obliterated,’ and noted that the most damage ‘took place far below ground level.’
Iranian media then reported that Israel was carrying out new strikes on the Fordow nuclear facilities today, with Israeli media saying the IDF was targeting an access road at the site.
Meanwhile huge clouds of smoke towered over Tehran as Israel launched a wave of strikes ‘with unprecedented force’, including on a military headquarters killing ‘hundreds’ of guards members.
