Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hiding in an underground bunker in Tehran connected by an extensive tunnel network, and senior regime officials seeking to meet him are reportedly blindfolded to prevent the location from being disclosed, according to a report published Wednesday by the opposition-affiliated outlet Iran International, citing a source in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The claims have not been confirmed by other media organizations.
According to the source, Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was among the senior officials who were blindfolded and taken to Khamenei's hideout before traveling to Oman for meetings with officials there. The report also said Khamenei's son Mojtaba, who is sometimes mentioned as a possible successor, is managing contacts with regime figures, while another son, Masoud, is handling "routine office affairs."
The report comes amid conflicting claims regarding alleged armed clashes near Khamenei's office in central Tehran. The opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq, also known as the MEK, claimed that more than 100 of its operatives were killed or arrested in confrontations with regime forces.
Those sensational claims have not been independently verified, and no photos or videos documenting the events, or anything similar, have been published. Media outlets loyal to the regime denied that any such incident had taken place.
Despite the denials, Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency, which operates under the regime, addressed the allegations, writing that "four mercenaries used a plastic pipe to create something resembling a children's toy and attempted to stir unrest in central Tehran to gain the support of their masters," referring to Israel and the US. It added that the suspects were arrested during a routine police patrol.
Mujahedin-e Khalq was founded in the 1960s as a guerrilla movement opposing the shah, blending Marxist ideology with a revolutionary interpretation of Shiite Islam. The group was active during the 1979 Islamic Revolution but soon fell into a violent conflict with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Its leaders fled to France and later to Iraq, where the organization fought alongside Saddam Hussein against Iran during the 1980-1988 war, a move that made it widely reviled among many Iranians and isolated even within the broader opposition.
Today, the organization operates from Albania under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi and is described by some Western sources as exhibiting cult-like characteristics, including a personality cult.
