Mystery surrounding Mojtaba Khamenei: CIA and Mossad search for traces – Uncertainty over Iran’s leadership

The CIA, Mossad and different quality agencies astir the satellite monitored Nowruz connected Friday to find whether Iran’s caller Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, would present the accepted New Year message.

Instead of a nationalist appearance, lone a written connection was released, further fueling questions astir his wellness condition, his location, and the grade of his engagement successful managing the war.

According to Axios, his constricted nationalist beingness is considered expected, arsenic Israel has made it wide that Mojtaba Khamenei is present 1 of its superior targets. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that the caller Supreme Leader was earnestly injured during the onslaught that killed his father. However, the lack of adjacent a pre-recorded video 3 weeks aft assuming bureau intensifies uncertainty astir his condition.

According to US and Israeli sources, determination are indications that Mojtaba Khamenei is inactive alive, arsenic Iranian officials attempted to docket face-to-face meetings with him, though unsuccessfully owed to accrued information measures.

The contented of the existent organisation of powerfulness successful Tehran has been portion of quality briefings fixed to US President Donald Trump. According to a US authoritative cited by the American outlet, the nationalist information squad is trying to find who is making cardinal decisions.

A elder Israeli authoritative stated that determination is nary wide grounds that Mojtaba Khamenei is the 1 issuing orders, portion a US root noted that determination is nary confirmation that helium is afloat exercising leadership.

Mojtaba Khamenei was announced arsenic Supreme Leader connected March 9, pursuing backing from hardline factions wrong the regime. His archetypal nationalist absorption was constricted to a written connection connected Telegram a fewer days later, reinforcing speculation that helium was earnestly injured during the Israeli onslaught connected his father’s residence.

US and Israeli quality services had believed that Ali Larijani had assumed a impermanent de facto enactment role, until his assassination by Israel past Tuesday. In remarks connected Friday, Donald Trump said that the nonaccomplishment of successive enactment figures is making it hard to place counterparts wrong the Iranian regime.

Israeli officials accidental that Iran’s apical enactment is present operating nether changeless threat, moving betwixt unafraid locations and avoiding integer communications.

In his written Nowruz connection posted connected Telegram, Khamenei called for unity, accompanied by photos of himself. A US authoritative said the CIA is examining whether the images are recent.

At the aforesaid time, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian released a video connection for the aforesaid juncture contempt information threats, raising further questions astir the lack of a akin quality by the caller Supreme Leader.

Raz Zimmt, caput of the Iran programme astatine the Institute for National Security Studies successful Tel Aviv, noted that determination is nary grounds that Mojtaba Khamenei is incapable to execute his duties, emphasizing that information conditions and imaginable wounded whitethorn beryllium limiting his nationalist appearances.

In a closed-door proceeding connected Thursday earlier the House Intelligence Committee, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Intelligence Agency main General James Adams assessed that the Iranian authorities is facing a superior situation successful its command-and-control structure, though determination are nary indications of an imminent collapse.

Israeli officials judge that the assassination of Ali Larijani has deepened the powerfulness vacuum, which is present mostly being filled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an enactment with important power implicit the country’s economy, politics, and security. According to assessments, Mojtaba Khamenei’s adjacent ties with this assemblage contributed to his emergence to leadership.

Some analysts judge that the weakening of the accepted enactment radical could pb to the emergence of adjacent much hardline figures. At the aforesaid time, Israeli officials reason that outer unit whitethorn intensify interior strains wrong the Iranian regime, expanding the likelihood of governmental developments wrong the country.