Donald Trump is said to have already vetoed an Israeli opportunity to kill Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the conflict erupted on Friday.
Despite his 86 years, Tehran’s supreme leader is still at risk of assassination and is currently hiding in what is believed to be one of the most secure locations possible. Israel’s ongoing precision strikes targeting high-ranking officials have put him in extreme danger.
According to The Economist’s defence editor, Shashank Joshi, speaking on the BBC’s Newscast, it is likely that Khamenei will refrain from making any public appearances. His remaining loyalists are working tirelessly to protect him from Israel’s targeted attacks.
Joshi expressed his opinion that there is a deep concern within the Iranian camp regarding Israel’s thorough penetration. As a result, they are exploring all possible avenues to ensure Khamenei’s safety, which may include constantly moving him to different secure locations.
Sources within Iran told London-based Persian-language outlet Iran International that Khamenei was moved to an underground bunker in Lavizan, in northeastern Tehran, in the hours after Israel began its attacks on the capital at the end of last week.
He is believed to be holed up with his family, including his son, Mojtaba – who has been pegged as a potential successor to the ageing supreme leader.
Israel has already taken out top ranking officials including the chief of staff of the Iranian military and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Chiefs (IRGC) since Friday.
A strike killing Khamenei would be deeply controversial and create untold chaos within Iran’s political system. It would also depend on Israeli intelligence being able to locate the supreme leader – and the air force to deliver the crucial blow.
‘Operation Rising Lion’, believed to have been years in the making, has seen Israel cripple entrenched nuclear facilities. But the Israeli Air Force (IAF) lacks the huge bunker busters to needed to destroy Iran’s most elusive sites deep underground.
Khamenei was last pictured in a televised address from an undisclosed location on Friday, June 13, standing between Iran’s flag and a portrait of former supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the country through revolution in 1979.
‘Given the current Israeli threat, the Israeli defence minister saying Tehran will burn if you attack our cities, Netanyahu’s threat of regime change, the clinical precision attacks on the top generals [on Friday], I think it is unlikely Khamenei will risk coming out,’ Mr Joshi told the programme.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is pictured in a televised message on June 13, 2025
FILE PHOTO: An image provided by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 2021 shows an underground missile base at an undisclosed location
He cited the recent examples of Israel assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, in assessing that Khamenei would have ‘legitimate’ fears he is a target of assassination.
While Israeli strikes so far have done much to undermine Iran’s military and nuclear programme, removing Khamenei ‘could cause total upheaval and chaos’, he said.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to assassinate Khamenei as both sides continued to trade blows.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said top U.S. officials have been in constant communications with Israeli officials in the days since Israel launched its attack.
They said the Israelis reported that they had an opportunity to kill the top Iranian leader, but Trump waved them off of the plan.
Trump has not commented on the report. Netanyahu did not directly confirm or deny the claims when interviewed by Fox News, but did say: ‘There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened and I’m not going to get into that.’
Israel has dealt significant damage to Iran’s military capabilities since Friday, killing Mohammad Bagheri, the military’s chief of staff, and Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Then on Sunday, Netanyahu said that the IRGC’s intelligence chief, Mohammad Kazemi, and his deputy had been targeted in a strike.
The administration has not been overly shy about killing non-military figures, either; Ali Shamkhani, a top advisor to Khamenei, died from wounds sustained in Israel’s initial attack on Friday, Iranian state media confirmed on Saturday.
A general view of Tehran covered in smoke and dust following explosions after an Israeli airstrike, on June 15, 2025
Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15, 2025 in Tehran, Iran
People look over damage to buildings in Nobonyad Square following Israeli airstrikes on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran
IRGC commander-in-chief Major General Hossein Salami alongside navy commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri unveiling an underground base for anti-ship missiles at an undisclosed Gulf location
An Israeli official told CBS News that ‘in principle’, however, Israel does not ‘kill political leaders’.
‘We are focused on nuclear and military,’ the unnamed official said. ‘I don’t think anyone making decisions about those programmes should be living free and easy.’
Experts following the burgeoning conflict believe that the strikes on key figures in the country’s military chain of command and its nuclear scientists suggest Israel is ‘hoping to see regime change’ in Iran.
Michael Singh of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former senior official under President George W. Bush told Reuters that Iran ‘would like to see the people of Iran rise up’, adding that the limited civilian casualties in the initial round of attacks also spoke to a broader aim.
Hours after Israel launched its first wave of strikes, Netanyahu appealed directly to the Iranian people, saying in a video address that ‘the Islamic regime, which has oppressed us for almost 50 years, threatens to destroy our country, the State of Israel’.
Israel’s objective was to remove the nuclear and ballistic missile threat, he said, but added: ‘As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom.
‘The regime does not know what hit them, or what will hit them. It has never been weaker. This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard.’
While Netanyahu has called for a change in Iran’s government, including in September, Israel has not said it is actively interfering to bring about such a change.
‘As a democratic country, the State of Israel believes that it is up to the people of a country to shape their national politics, and choose their government,’ the Israeli embassy in Washington told Reuters.
‘The future of Iran can only be determined by the Iranian people.’
Video shared by Mossad showed what appeared to be special forces at an undisclosed location, before the strikes on Friday
Israel carried out attacks on Iranian defences before launching strikes against nuclear facilities and key leaders in Iran’s military hierarchy
Iran fired a new wave of missile attacks on Israel early Monday, triggering air raid sirens across the country as emergency services reported at least five people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the fourth day of the conflict.
Powerful explosions, likely from Israel’s defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles, rocked Tel Aviv shortly before dawn. Plumes of black smoke rose into the sky over the major coastal city.
The latest salvo comes after a weekend of escalating tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran that raised fears of a wider, more dangerous regional war.
Iran on Sunday said Israel struck oil refineries, killed the intelligence chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and hit population centers in intensive aerial attacks.
Iranian parliamentarians are now said to be preparing a bill that could push Tehran toward exiting the nuclear proliferation treaty that binds it to cooperate with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Iran could leave the treaty, while reiterating Tehran’s official stance against developing nuclear weapons.
‘In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will coordinate in the later stages with parliament,’ the ministry’s spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, when asked at a press conference about Tehran potentially leaving the NPT.
The NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970, guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
Critics accuse Israel of hypocrisy over its stance on nuclear weapons. The country is believed to have nuclear weapons, but maintains a policy of ambiguity. It is not a signatory to the NPT and is not bound by the legally binding obligations of the treaty.
