Khamenei prepares candidates for possible succession, views potential death as 'martyrdom' - report

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has chosen three senior clerics as potential candidates to be his successor should Israel succeed in eliminating him, the New York Times reported on Saturday, citing three Iranian officials.

He also reportedly made the “unusual decision” of asking Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which is the body tasked with appointing a supreme leader, to choose his successor from the three names.

Israel has been eliminating the top military and IRGC commanders, in addition to top nuclear scientists in charge of Iran’s nuclear program, since it launched Operation Rising Lion on June 13.

Khamenei has therefore had to appoint several replacements, many of whom have subsequently been killed by Israeli strikes. According to the report, Khamenei named an “array of replacements down his chain of military command” to have backups in case Israel strikes even more of his newly appointed commanders. 

Khamenei, who is 86 years old, has been the supreme leader of Iran since 1989, when he succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary Islamist responsible for Iran’s Islamic revolution. 

Two of the Iranian officials cited by the New York Times said that the Intelligence Ministry of Iran has ordered all senior government officials and military commanders to stay underground to avoid being killed by Israeli strikes. 

In addition, the ministry asked officials to halt all electronic communications, including cell phones, to avoid being tracked by the IDF. Khamenei, according to the paper, only communicates with his commanders through a trusted adviser. 

The officials also told the New York Times that Khamenei views his potential death at the hands of the US or Israel as “martyrdom” and that he wants “a clean transition of power after his death, both to safeguard his legacy and to ensure Iran doesn’t get bogged down in messy battles of succession while at war.”

It is unclear who Khamenei’s three chosen candidates are, but his son, Mojtaba is not among them, according to the Iranian officials.

Israel has refrained from publicly speaking about the assassination of Khamenei, preferring to remain vague on the issue. The exception has been Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said after the Iranian missile barrage on Beersheba hospital that the Islamic regime’s leader “cannot continue to exist.”

“Dictator Khamenei is a modern-day Hitler who has carved out on his banner the destruction of the State of Israel and is enslaving all of his country's resources to advance this terrible goal," Katz posted on social media. “He cannot continue to exist.”

Trump, on the other hand, has vetoed the elimination of Khamenei, at least for now.

“We communicated to the Israelis that President Trump is opposed to that. The Iranians haven't killed an American and discussion of killing political leaders should not be on the table,” a U.S. official said last week.

According to Iran International, Khamenei and his family are hiding from the Israelis in an underground bunker in Lavizan in northeastern Tehran, where they fled just hours after Israel launched Operation Rising Lion.