Reuters: Iran's Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader of Israeli plot before assassination
Shafaq News/ Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before his assassination in an Israeli strike, Reuters quoted Iranian sources on Wednesday.
Khamenei was deeply concerned about Israel's infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, according to Reuters.
In the aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers on Sept. 17, Khamenei sent a message urging Nasrallah to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports suggesting an Israeli plot to kill him. The messenger, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, was killed alongside Nasrallah in the Israeli attack.
Khamenei personally ordered a barrage of missiles to be fired at Israel in retaliation for the deaths of Nasrallah and the commander. The statement also cited the July killing of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Israel's attacks on Lebanon.
Nasrallah's assassination followed two weeks of precise Israeli strikes that destroyed weapons sites, eliminated half of Hezbollah's leadership council, and decimated its top military command. Iran's fears for the safety of Khamenei and the loss of trust within both Hezbollah and Iran's establishment emerged in conversations with 10 sources for this story.
The disarray is making it hard for Hezbollah to choose a new leader, fearing the ongoing infiltration will put the successor at risk. "Basically, Iran lost the biggest investment it had for the past decades," said Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert at the Swedish Defense University. "It shook Iran to the core."
Nasrallah's death has prompted Iranian authorities to thoroughly investigate possible infiltrations within Iran's own ranks, from the powerful Revolutionary Guards to senior security officials. They are especially focused on those who travel abroad or have relatives living outside Iran.
The assassination has spread mistrust between Tehran and Hezbollah, and within Hezbollah. "The trust that held everything together has disappeared," said a senior Iranian official. The Supreme Leader "no longer trusts anyone," said another source close to Iran's establishment.
Alarm bells had already rung within Tehran and Hezbollah about possible Mossad infiltrations after the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike in July. Shukr was key to the development of Hezbollah's most advanced weaponry and was in charge of the Shi'ite groups operations against Israel over the past year.
Iranian fears about Israeli penetration of its upper ranks stretch back years. In 2021, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the head of an Iranian intelligence unit that was supposed to target agents of Mossad had himself been an agent for the Israeli spy agency.
Khamenei's invitation to Nasrallah to relocate to Iran came after thousands of pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah blew up in deadly attacks on Sept 17 and 18. Nasrallah, however, was confident in his security and trusted his inner circle completely.
Several high-level meetings were held in Tehran following the pager blasts to discuss Hezbollah and Nasrallah's safety. Simultaneously, in Lebanon, Hezbollah began conducting a major investigation to purge Israeli spies among them, questioning hundreds of members after the pager detonations.
Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hezbollah official, was leading the investigation. The probe was progressing rapidly before an Israeli raid killed him a day after Nasrallah's assassination. Another raid earlier last week had targeted other senior Hezbollah commanders, some of who were involved in the inquiry.
Hezbollah is reeling from Nasrallah's killing in his deep bunker in a command HQ, shocked at how successfully Israel penetrated the group. The current Israeli escalation follows almost a year of cross-border fighting after Hezbollah began rocket attacks in support of its ally Hamas.
The loss of trust between Iran and Hezbollah has prevented the Iranian-backed group from organizing a nationwide funeral on a scale reflecting Nasrallah's religious and leadership status. Hezbollah is mulling the option of securing a religious decree to bury Nasrallah temporarily and hold an official funeral when the situation permits.
Hezbollah has refrained from officially appointing a successor to Nasrallah, possibly to avoid making his replacement a target for an Israeli assassination.
