CIA and Mossad Hunt for Iran's New Supreme Leader: Is Mojtaba Khamenei Alive?

Western intelligence agencies are trying to pinpoint the whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei — son and presumed successor of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — who, according to The Times, has not used any electronic devices since February 28 and is therefore beyond the reach of interception efforts.

It was on February 28 that the United States struck Iran in an attack that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with his son Mojtaba reportedly suffering severe injuries. Since then, according to The Times, there has been no recorded use of a mobile phone or laptop by him, nor has a single video address or official audio recording of his voice surfaced. He has communicated his wishes solely through written statements and letters, read aloud by announcers on Iranian state television and radio.

According to several intelligence sources cited by the newspaper, Mojtaba is hiding in an underground bunker, his face disfigured by wounds, and he reportedly does not dare surface during daylight hours for fear of being spotted by American reconnaissance satellites.

To track his father, Ali Khamenei, US and Israeli intelligence services deployed a range of cyber tools, including hacking traffic cameras in Tehran to identify vehicles belonging to the security detail and associates of the then-Supreme Leader. The US National Security Agency (NSA) — one of the most technologically advanced intelligence agencies in the world — working alongside its Israeli counterpart, known as "Unit 8200," managed to locate Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian military and intelligence officials.

The elimination campaign began on February 28 and continued through mid-March, when an Israeli airstrike killed Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

The situation has since shifted: whereas technical interception and surveillance tools were once decisive, intelligence sources now say that pinpointing the current Supreme Leader's location is only possible through human intelligence on the ground. Meanwhile, the question of "Where is Mojtaba?" has evolved into something far more consequential: "Who actually runs Iran?"

Within the intelligence community, The Times reports, some believe Mojtaba may already be dead, and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is merely maintaining the fiction of his existence to lend legitimacy to the ongoing standoff with the United States. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently claimed that he and other officials had met with the newly appointed Supreme Leader, yet no photographs, video footage, or audio recordings confirming such a meeting have ever been made public.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz