On June 26, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave his first address to the nation since the country’s 12-day war with Israel ended with a ceasefire that the US President Donald Trump and the Emir of Qatar brokered earlier this week.
Khamenei, in a pre-recorded video message, downplayed reports of damage to the country’s nuclear programme by US strikes and declared victory over both Israel and the United States.
“The Islamic republic slapped America in the face,” said Khamenei, 86. He said that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities did not do ‘anything important’ and that the United States only intervened to save Israel from being ‘completely destroyed.’
Khamenei has reportedly been hiding for nearly two weeks after Israel’s strike on the country on June 13. Israel also eliminated Iran’s senior military leadership and some scientists during the strikes. The Islamic Republic retaliated with missile strikes on Israel.
The US said on Sunday that the country’s military “obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites using 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft. Iran attacked a US air base in neighbouring Qatar.
Iranian officials claimed the attacks left 627 people dead and nearly 5,000 injured. Iran’s retaliation targeted parts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, leaving a trail of damaged buildings and at least 14 people dead, according to reports.
On Tuesday, however, Israel and Iran confirmed a ceasefire, hours after President Trump announced an imminent ceasefire between the two nations on Truth Social.
Where is Khamenei?
In his address on Thursday, the ageing Iranian leader Khamenei sat flanked by an Iranian flag and a portrait of his predecessor and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei spoke while looking into the camera. But it was unclear exactly when the video was recorded.
According to a Reuters investigation citing five sources with direct knowledge of succession planning, Khamenei has gone into hiding with his family and is being protected by the elite Vali-ye Amr unit of the Revolutionary Guards.
While he is reportedly still being briefed on internal matters, a special three-member committee—appointed by Khamenei himself two years ago—is accelerating efforts to identify his successor, sources told Reuters.
In the event of Khamenei’s death, the ruling establishment aims to swiftly announce a new leader to maintain national stability.
Khamenei has the last word
As the supreme leader, Khamenei has the last word on all major state matters. As the commander in chief of the armed forces, he would be expected to approve any military decision, including the attack on the American base or the ceasefire deal with Israel.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both suggested during the war that Khamenei was vulnerable and not immune from their strikes.
During an interview with The New York Times on June 25, Mehdi Fazaeli, head of Khamenei’s archives office, was asked about the Supreme Leader’s well-being. “People are very worried about the Supreme Leader,” the host said. Without offering a direct answer, Fazaeli said, “We all should be praying.” He added that he received numerous inquiries from officials, and viewers had sent a flood of messages asking the same question. The interview was done before Khamenei’s Janauary 26 televised address
Fazaeli claimed that the people who are responsible for protecting the Supreme Leader are doing their job well, adding, “God willing, our people can celebrate victory next to their leader, God willing.”
Earlier, officials said that Khamenei had been hiding in a secure underground bunker and was avoiding all electronic communication to prevent assassination attempts.
During the anti-US and anti-Israel protest last week, before the ceasefire, women were seen carrying portraits of Khamenei in their hands. Newspapers in Iran had voiced the concern about Khamenei whereabouts, too. “His days-long absence has made all of us who love him very worried,” Mohsen Khalifeh, editor of Khaneman, a daily newspaper.
Khamenei’s successor?
The three-member panel of the top clerical body in Iran, appointed by Khamenei himself two years ago to identify his replacement, has accelerated its planning, according to news agency Reuters.
According to an earlier in The New York Times, Khamenei has also picked replacements in his chain of military commands in case they are killed in Israeli strikes.
The report, citing three Iranian officials familiar with Khamenei’s emergency war plans, said that the Supreme Leader “mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications to make it harder to find him”.
“He would be well advised to be cautious, despite the fragile ceasefire that the US President Donald Trump and the Emir of Qatar brokered. Though President Trump reportedly told Israel not to kill Iran’s supreme leader, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not rule it out,” wrote Kasra Naji, Special Correspondent, BBC Persian.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that his country’s forces would have killed Khamenei if it had been possible during the recent 12-day war fought between both nations.
‘Difficult to estimate’
“I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz said in an interview with Israel’s Kan public television. But Khamenei understood this, went underground to very great depths, and broke off contacts with the commanders who replaced those commanders who were eliminated, so it wasn’t realistic in the end,” Katz was quoted as saying.
The Islamic republic slapped America in the face.
Sanctions have crippled the Iranian economy, reducing a top oil exporter to a poor and struggling shadow of its former self, Naji said in the BBC report. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had both suggested at various times during the air war that Khamenei’s life could be in danger as regime change could be a result of the war that ended with the ceasefire on Tuesday.
“It is difficult to estimate how much longer the Iranian regime can survive under such significant strain, but this looks like the beginning of the end,” Professor Lina Khatib, a visiting scholar at Harvard University was quoted as saying in the BBC report.