The Israeli military operation against the center of Iranian power experienced a further escalation with a targeted attack on Qom, one of the most religiously important cities for the Islamic Republic. Israeli air force planes and drones targeted the Council building where, according to various reconstructions, the Council was supposed to meet.Assembly of Expertsthe body made up of 88 religious in charge of choosing the Supreme Leader.
Inside the structure there would have been members of the clergy called to decide on the succession to the top of the state. The very fact that the body responsible for appointing the new leadership met in a phase of maximum military pressure highlights a possible flaw in the Iranian security system.
The choice to convene the meeting in a highly symbolic and easily identifiable place suggests an information system in difficulty and probably penetrated by Israeli intelligence.
Shortly before the raid, a Persian-language message attributed to the Mossad: «It doesn’t matter who is chosen today; his fate has already been decreed. Only the Iranian nation will choose its next leader.”
The toll of the attack still remains provisional, but the first indications speak of numerous deaths and injuries. However, Tehran reacted by rejecting the version spread by the Israeli media. The official agency Tasnim he denied that a succession vote was underway, calling the news “a lie from the Zionist regime.”
According to the agency, “no meeting of the Assembly of Experts or the Interim Governing Council was planned” and the dissemination of this information would be part of “a psychological operation aimed at creating the perception of a power vacuum in the country”.
However, indirect confirmation came from the United States. The president Donald Trump he declared that “there has been another attack against the new leadership,” adding that the operation “appears to have been quite significant.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, the man in the shadow of the regime
During the evening, a rumor began to insistently circulate, destined to further shake the balance of the regime: Mojtaba Khameneison of the late leader Ali Khamenei, would have been indicated as the new Supreme Leader.
News which was later made official and which brings back to center stage a figure who has for years been considered among the most influential and at the same time most enigmatic in Iranian politics.
For a long time Mojtaba Khamenei, considered very close to Pasdaran and the intelligence apparatus, he was described as the man behind the scenes. A deliberately low profile, very few public appearances and no prominent institutional positions.
Despite this, over the years his name has become increasingly present in analyzes of the possible succession at the top of the Islamic Republic.
Whoever is chosen by the Iranian regime to take Ali Khamenei’s place at the helm of the Islamic Republic “will inevitably become a target to be eliminated.” The Israeli Defense Minister declared this Israel Katzreiterating the extremely firm line adopted by Israel towards the Tehran leadership.
“Any figure that the Iranian terrorist regime appoints to continue its plan to destroy the State of Israel, threaten the United States, the free world, and countries in the region, as well as continue to oppress the Iranian people, will be considered a legitimate target,” Katz said in a statement.
The minister also clarified that the identity of the future leader will not change Israel’s position. “It doesn’t matter what his name is or where he decides to hide,” he added.
Katz finally underlined that the operations will continue with the support of the United States. “We will continue to act with all our strength, together with American partners, to dismantle the regime’s capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it,” concluded the minister, as reported by Times of Israel.
The war spreads from Lebanon to Tehran
In the meantime the conflict has also spread to Lebanon. During the night the Israeli Defense Forces struck the headquarters of Hezbollahas well as operational buildings, weapons depots and launch pads in the south of the country. The Israeli Air Force destroyed the launcher used in the attacks on Haifa in less than ninety minutes.
According to Israeli military authorities, they have so far been targeted beyond that 250 objectivesincluding senior commanders and operational members of the Go Radwan. About 300 thousand civilians have been evacuated from southern Lebanon and new evacuation warnings have been issued in the last few hours.
The Israel Defense Forces maintain that Hezbollah continues to operate under the direct protection of Iran.
Since dawn, the Israeli air force, guided by information from military intelligence, carried out a further wave of attacks against the Iranian regime’s headquarters in Tehran. During the raids, IAF aircraft dropped numerous munitions on dozens of bases belonging to the Basij and internal security forces linked to the regime.
According to the Israeli military, these facilities constituted central nodes of the internal control apparatus used by the regime to maintain stability and manage security operations across the country. The targets hit also include the logistics division of the ground forces, missile systems and air defense positions.
The offensive focuses in particular on the repressive apparatus of the Iranian state, accused of having forcibly suffocated internal protests causing thousands of victims. The raids targeted officials responsible for internal security, members of the paramilitary Basij militia and senior intelligence officials.
Him too United States they would have participated in some operations targeting internal security facilities, including the headquarters of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran, the powerful body responsible for defending the regime.
The Revolutionary Guards and Basij militias have been among the main protagonists in the repression of anti-government demonstrations in recent years. During the protests they opened fire on demonstrators, causing thousands of deaths in what is considered one of the most violent political repression in recent decades.
The police and security services also took part in the crackdown with mass arrests and large-scale operations.
According to Israeli sources, the goal of the military campaign is to inflict sufficient damage on the Iranian police state to weaken the regime’s control and create the conditions for an internal uprising.
For years Israel has limited itself to targeted operations or clandestine actions to contain Tehran’s influence, but now several officials believe it is necessary to push towards a real regime change.
In this context, as reported by the CNN citing informed sources, the CIA he is reportedly working to supply weapons to Kurdish groups with the aim of encouraging an internal revolt in Iran. The White House has reportedly started talks with Iranian opposition movements and Kurdish leaders active in Iraqi Kurdistan to evaluate possible forms of military assistance.
A senior Kurdish-Iranian leader also declared to the American broadcaster that President Donald Trump would have had a conversation with Mostafa Hijrileader of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Partyone of the main Kurdish opposition movements against the Tehran regime.
