Iran’s intelligence minister said on Saturday the Islamic Republic's enemies are seeking to target Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warning about attempts to incite another wave of unrest in the country.
Esmail Khatib described Khamenei as the “pillar and axis” of the Islamic Republic and said: “That is why the enemy tries to target the leadership… sometimes through assassination and sometimes through hostile attacks that are today perhaps even pursued from inside the country.”
He did not provide further details about alleged attempts to target Khamenei, though other senior officials have previously voiced similar concerns.
On November 11, Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of the Islamic Republic, said during a speech on the parliament floor that during the 12-day war he feared harm might come to Khamenei.
Iran’s cohesion and stability hinge on the Supreme Leader’s security, he told the lawmakers, warning that an attack on him during the June war could have provoked internal clashes posing a greater threat than any external enemy.
In June, US President Donald Trump, reacting to the Supreme Leader’s comments about winning the 12-day war, said the US knew where Khamenei was hiding during the war but did not want him killed “for now.”
Earlier this month, the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, in an analysis about continuing Iranian threats against Israel, wrote that the option of killing Khamenei was not pursued in the June battle but “remains possible.”
'Regime change policy shelved'
The Iranian intelligence minister said on Saturday that the country’s adversaries have moved from attempts to overthrow the Islamic Republic to efforts aimed at weakening it from within, including through efforts to target the leadership.
Khatib said during a visit to Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province that Israel and the United States had changed their strategy “from overthrow and disintegration to containment through pressure,” using cyberattacks, disinformation and attempts to fuel social divisions.
He said such efforts were meant to undermine public trust and sow discord.
“Anyone who knowingly or unknowingly walks in this path is serving the goals of the enemies,” he said.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.
