Not the entire particulars of the most recent operation are recognized. Some could by no means be made public, with a view to defend sources and strategies nonetheless getting used to trace down different targets.
However killing Khamenei was a political resolution, not merely a technological achievement, stated greater than half a dozen present and former Israeli intelligence officers interviewed for this story.
When the CIA and Israel decided that Khamenei could be holding a gathering on Saturday morning at his places of work close to Pasteur Road, the prospect to kill him alongside a lot of Iran’s senior management was particularly opportune.
They assessed that looking them down after a conflict had correctly begun would have been a lot tougher, for the reason that Iranians would shortly embark on evasive practices, together with heading underground to bunkers resistant to Israeli bombs.
Khamenei, not like his ally Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, didn’t dwell in hiding. Nasrallah had spent years of his life in underground bunkers, dodging a number of Israeli assassination makes an attempt till September 2024, when Israeli fighter jets dropped as many as 80 bombs over his hideout in Beirut, killing him.
As an alternative, Khamenei had mused in public about the potential for being killed, dismissing his personal life as inconsequential to the destiny of the Islamic Republic – in truth, some Iran consultants stated he anticipated to be martyred.
However throughout wartime, stated one of many folks interviewed, he did take some precautions. “It was uncommon for him to not be in his bunker – he had two bunkers – and if he had been, Israel wouldn’t have been in a position to attain him with the bombs that they’ve,” the individual stated.
Even in June 2025, within the throes of a full-blown conflict, Israel made no recognized makes an attempt to bomb Khamenei. It had as a substitute focused principally the management of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, missile launchers and stockpiles and Iran’s nuclear services and scientists.
Whereas Donald Trump had repeatedly threatened to assault Iran in current weeks, increase an “armada” off its shores, negotiations between the US and Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme had been meant to proceed this week.
The mediator Oman stated Iran was willing to make concessions that might help stave off a war and described the newest assembly final Thursday as fruitful.
In public, the US president grumbled that issues had been shifting too slowly. However an individual aware of the matter stated that, in non-public, Trump was “dissatisfied with the Iranian responses”, paving the way in which for conflict.
An individual briefed on the state of affairs stated the assault on Iran had been deliberate for months, however officers adjusted their operation after the US and Israeli intelligence confirmed that Khamenei and his senior officers could be assembly in his compound in Tehran on Saturday morning.
