Ayatollah Khamenei holed up in secret bunker – report

Iran’s Supreme Leader has reportedly gone into hiding in a secret bunker connected to avast underground tunnel network in Tehran.

By World Israel News Staff

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone into hiding in a secret bunker in Tehran, part of an extensive underground network, the London-based anti-regime website Iran International reported Wednesday.

The report comes after hundreds of insurgents from the radical left-wing People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) attacked the presidential palace, Khamenei’s office, and the residence of the supreme leader this week.

The PMOI said that more than 100 of its members were killed or captured in clashes with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces in Tehran on Monday. Iranian state media denied the statement, claiming that four mercenaries had planted a fake bomb in downtown Tehran to create panic.

Wednesday’s report cited an official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official claimed that Khamenei has taken extreme precautions to prevent the location of his secret hideout from being leaked, requiring senior IRGC officials seeking to meet with him to be blindfolded as they are brought to the bunker.

Even Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who has reportedly been designated to serve in Khamenei’s stead in the event that the ayatollah is killed, was blindfolded when he was brought to the bunker for a meeting to consult with Khamenei before his meeting in Oman ahead of Thursday’s nuclear summit in Geneva.

The supreme leader is reportedly relying heavily on two of his sons to manage his affairs while he is holed up in the bunker.

Khamenei’s likely heir, Mojtaba Khamenei, is said to be managing the supreme leader’s connections with other regime officials, while another son, Masoud, handles his father’s routine office affairs.

This is not the first time the ayatollah has reportedly hidden in his Tehran bunker.

During the 12-day war with Israel last June, Khamenei is said to have operated out of the underground network.