Iran is in the midst of possibly the biggest attack it has faced in decades as a joint US-Israeli operation continues. Unlike the previous attack in June 2025, when the US carried out airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the current wave of attacks, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, is prolonged and on a much larger scale, posing an existential threat to the theocratic regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
US-Israeli strikes target Khamenei, Pezeshkian
The joint US-Israeli operation also directly targeted the top leadership of the Islamic Republic, including Khamenei himself and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
While US and Israeli officials have confirmed that several prominent sites in Tehran were targeted, including Ali Khamenei’s compound and offices, the fate of the supreme leader is unknown.
“Khamenei was not in Tehran”
However, some reports claimed that Khamenei was not in Tehran at the time of the attacks and that he had been moved to a safe, undisclosed location beforehand.
Game over for Khamenei?
The 86-year-old has not been seen in public since January 31, when he visited the shrine of his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He was conspicuously absent from the annual Feb. 8 meeting with Air Force chiefs, a ritual he has observed for decades.
Khamenei has dominated Iran for the past three-and-a-half decades since he took over as the leader of the Islamic Revolution for life in 1989 following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
But in recent years, growing US-Israeli threats and frequent public protests have posed the biggest challenge to his rule. Khamenei was forced into hiding during the 12-day war against Israel in June.
Who will succeed Khamenei?
His advanced age and the lack of a succession plan became a major crisis for the future of the Islamic Republic. Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was widely seen as the frontrunner to succeed Khamenei. But Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024, significantly disrupting the regime’s long-term succession planning.
Several names, including that of Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, have been floated as a possible successor to Ali Khamenei.
Pezeshkian is alive, state media say
Along with Khamenei, the US-Israeli strikes also reportedly targeted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. While there have been several unverified claims on social media that Pezeshkian was killed in the strike, Iranian state media, including IRNA and Tasnim News Agency, have officially denied reports of his death, saying he was “safe”.
Although two top leaders may have survived, several high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and political figures of the Islamic regime were killed in Saturday’s attacks, an Iranian source close to the establishment told Reuters.
