Owing to the escalating hostilities with Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has taken the rare step of naming three senior clerics as potential successors should he be assassinated, the New York Times reported. The 86-year-old leader, deeply concerned about his safety, has largely suspended electronic communications and now speaks to top commanders only through a trusted aide, the report further quoted three Iranian officials familiar with the regime’s emergency war protocols as saying.
Since a wave of surprise Israeli strikes last Friday, the most intense military assault on Iran since its war with Iraq in the 1980s, Khamenei has relocated to a fortified bunker.
According to officials quoted in the NYT report, the supreme leader is acutely aware that he may become a target for assassination, either by Israel or the United States. In what insiders call a first-of-its-kind move, Khamenei has instructed Iran’s Assembly of Experts to select his replacement swiftly from the three clerics he has named to ensure a smooth and speedy transition in the event of his death.
The shortlist excludes his son Mojtaba Khamenei, a cleric aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who was long rumored to be his favored successor.
Iran’s leadership suffer heavy losses
Though Iran’s leadership has suffered heavy losses in recent days, the country’s military chain of command remains intact, with no visible signs of dissent among political elites, according to diplomats and officials inside the country. Khamenei has appointed replacements down the military hierarchy to prevent a power vacuum if more IRGC leaders are killed.
Security across Iran has been dramatically tightened. According to the report, the Ministry of Intelligence has directed senior officials to cease all mobile and electronic communications and remain underground.
Meanwhile, Iran has resumed daily counterattacks on Israeli infrastructure, including religious buildings, homes, a hospital and the Haifa oil refinery.