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Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was moved to an underground bunker in Lavizan in northeastern Tehran hours after Israel began its attacks on Tehran early Friday, two informed sources inside Iran told Iran International.
All members of Khamenei's family including his son Mojtaba are with him, the sources said.
According to the sources, during the previous operations against Israel, True Promise 1 and True Promise 2, the Supreme Leader’s family was also taken to the bunker.
At that time, Mojtaba was by his side, but two of his sons, Masoud and Mostafa, were not with him.
Iran’s first direct attack on Israel, Operation True Promise 1, took place on April 13, 2024, and involved over 300 missiles and drones targeting military installations. The strike was in retaliation for the killing of two Iranian generals in Damascus.
Operation True Promise 2 followed on October 1, 2024, with approximately 200 missiles aimed at Israeli military facilities in response to the assassination of Iran-aligned militant leaders, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Warning to Khamenei
On Sunday, Israel targeted the city of Mashhad, located 2,300 kilometers from the Jewish State, for the first time.
A diplomatic source in the Middle East told Iran International that the Israeli airstrike on Mashhad was a warning to Iran’s Supreme Leader that he is not safe anywhere in the country.
The diplomatic source added that Israel could have eliminated Khamenei on the first night of the operation, but the Israeli government chose to keep him alive to give him a final chance to decide on completely dismantling the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program.
Trump had given Khamenei a two-month deadline to agree to dismantle Iran’s enrichment program. However, the Supreme Leader ignored both his and Israel’s warnings.
With the start of Israel’s airstrikes, that opportunity has been offered once again — this time for him to realistically assess Israel’s military capability and order the dismantling of the enrichment program, the sources said.
Mohammad Kazemi, the head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, and his deputy, Hassan Mohaqqeq, were trapped under the rubble following the Israeli strike on the Organization's building in Tehran, and their condition is currently unknown, Iran International has learned.
The strike caused extensive damage to the building, and search and rescue operations are still underway.
Iran International has obtained information indicating that Ali Asghar Hejazi, deputy chief of staff to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is in negotiations with Russian officials to secure a potential exit from Iran for himself and his family if the situation deteriorates.
According to the information, a senior Russian official has assured Hejazi that in case of escalation, Moscow would facilitate his evacuation via a secure corridor.
Other senior Iranian officials have reportedly received similar contacts, with some already finalizing their own exit routes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement Saturday that senior Iranian leaders were “packing their bags.”
Iran has cancelled planned negotiations with the United States that were due to take place in Oman on Sunday, sources told Iran International.
According to people familiar with the matter, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi informed his Omani counterpart — who had been mediating the indirect talks — that Tehran would not proceed with the discussions under current circumstances.
Also on Saturday, Araghchi told European Union foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas that continuing negotiations with the United States is unjustifiable as long as Israeli attacks persist.
The cancellation follows Araghchi’s public criticism of Washington’s silence over Israel’s recent attacks on Iranian territory.
There was no immediate comment from US officials or Omani mediators.
Israel’s ongoing military strikes on Iran—code-named “Rising Lion”—were the result of years of preparation and mark just the beginning of what’s to come, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said in an interview with Eye for Iran.
“This operation took years to prepare,” Chikli told Eye for Iran. “It's the very hard walk of the IDF intelligence, the Mossad... thousands of people are involved in this.”
“This is just the beginning,” he said, without disclosing operational details or how the mission might continue.
Iran launched over 200 missiles at Israel injuring at least 14 people after Israeli attacks killed its top military leadership and pounded armed forces and nuclear sites leaving scores of Iranians dead.
While Israel’s initial strikes hit key nuclear sites like Natanz and Fordow, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure spans dozens of locations. According to Israeli assessments, further strikes will likely be needed to eliminate what is seen as an existential threat.
Chikli said the objective was not regime change, but to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities. While many Iranians have called on Israel to help bring down the Islamic Republic, he said meaningful change must come from within.
“This is the time to seize the moment and to try and take back your country from the Revolutionary Guards," said Chikli, "Will Iranians use this moment to change the course of history, or not?”
Diplomacy may follow destruction
Major Andrew Fox, a former British Army officer, also said the Israeli strikes were deliberately calibrated to avoid full-scale regime decapitation—signaling intent, not total war.
“If they'd been serious about regime change, then Khamenei and the president would have been fully in scope for targeting.”
Fox emphasized that while regime change might remain a long-term objective, Israel’s more immediate priority is clear: "The short-term aim has to be focusing on making sure Iran doesn't gain a nuclear weapon capability."
He suggested that President Donald Trump may be using the Israeli operation as strategic leverage to push Tehran back to the negotiating table—after exhausting political and economic pressure.
“Trump is talking about giving Iran another opportunity to make a deal... That's the horse trade that Israel made with Washington.”
Fox’s analysis points to a pattern: when sanctions and diplomacy fail to alter Tehran’s behavior, military action becomes a final tool—not necessarily to start a war, but to reset the terms for diplomacy.
Iran’s weakest moment
Dr. Eric Mandel, a Middle East analyst and advisor to US and Israeli defense officials, told Eye for Iran that this moment marks the Islamic Republic’s deepest vulnerability since its founding in 1979—one of the most consequential events in modern Iranian and Middle Eastern history.
“Iran is at its weakest in 46 years,” said Mandel, who directs the Middle East Political and Information Network (MEPIN).
He says Trump now faces a defining choice—retreat into isolationism or use Israeli military action as leverage for long-term strategic change.
“The big question is, what will President Trump do? Not what the Israelis will do. What will the president do with what Israel has handed to them?”
Mandel suggests that one option remains on the table: a US strike on Iran’s deeply fortified enrichment site.
“America could retaliate and would the president make a phone call to Diego Garcia where our B-2 bombers with the massive ordinances are and attack the one place that hasn't been attacked as we know which is the deeply buried enrichment facility in Fordow”
The Lion Rises
Israeli Minister Chikli said the operation’s name, Rising Lion, came from both Iran’s original flag and a verse from the Book of Numbers: ‘A nation that rises like a lion.’
"We believe this is a moment not just for security—but for shared history and future peace.”
You can watch the full episode of Eye for Iran on YouTube or listen on any major podcast platform like Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music and Castbox.
