A dramatic and so far unverified report broadcast Sunday on Saudi channel Al-Hadath claims Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has left the country entirely and that senior Revolutionary Guard officials, not Khamenei himself, are the ones actually writing the messages published under his name, painting a picture of an Islamic Republic gripped by internal chaos and a loss of central control.
The report, attributed to an unnamed Israeli security source and relayed through the Saudi outlet, claims that messages issued in Khamenei's name are actually being authored by former interior minister Ahmad Vahidi together with senior Revolutionary Guard commanders, who the source alleges are the ones truly running the country behind the scenes. The same source claimed Iran had also drawn up plans for a targeted assassination operation against senior Israeli figures inside Tel Aviv itself, in what would represent a significant escalation from missile and drone strikes to direct attacks on Israeli soil, though no further operational details were provided.
It is important to stress that none of this has been confirmed by any other outlet, Israeli, American, or otherwise, and the claim should be treated with real caution. Mojtaba Khamenei's condition and whereabouts have been the subject of monthslong, often wildly contradictory reporting ever since he was elevated to supreme leader following the killing of his father, Ali Khamenei, in an Israeli strike on February 28. In the months since, various outlets have reported him as gravely wounded, in a coma on a ventilator, secretly flown to Moscow for surgery, fully recovered and in good health, or simply unaccounted for, with US and Israeli intelligence agencies themselves reportedly still working to pin down his exact location and condition as of recent weeks. Mojtaba has not appeared in public since succeeding his father, has skipped high-profile moments including his father's funeral procession and Iran's Nowruz address, and has communicated only through written statements, fueling ongoing speculation in Tehran itself about who is truly steering the country. Iranian officials have attributed his absence to concerns about a personal assassination threat.
The claim of an Iranian assassination plot targeting Israeli officials inside Tel Aviv likewise cannot be independently verified at this stage, though it fits a documented pattern. Israeli security services have disrupted multiple real Iranian-directed plots against Israeli officials and citizens over the past year, including a foiled plan to assassinate a senior Israeli scientist and a city mayor using recruited Israeli citizens, and an earlier case in which an Israeli man was indicted for agreeing to Iranian requests to assassinate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. Whether the specific plot described in Sunday's report is real, exaggerated, or fabricated remains unknown.
The same report also claims, still citing the unnamed Israeli source, that the United States has delivered a firm message to Jerusalem that it does not want Israel directly participating in strikes on Iran, and that this applies "even if Iran attacks Israel." That claim could not be independently corroborated either, though it would track with previous reporting describing friction between Washington and Jerusalem over the degree of direct Israeli involvement in the campaign against Iran.
Given the level of uncertainty surrounding every element of this report, and the long track record of unconfirmed and often contradictory claims specifically about Mojtaba Khamenei's status, readers should treat these details as unverified allegations rather than established fact. This article will be updated if the claims are confirmed, denied, or clarified by additional sources
