Iran’s Khamenei said to pick three potential successors as he hides in bunker

June 21, 2025  — The Times of Israel reports: “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has nominated three clerics as potential successors as he hides in a bunker while facing threats of assassination by Israel in the ongoing war, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, has also named an ‘array of replacements down his chain of military command’ in case Israel eliminates more top officers, according to the report, which cited three Iranian officials familiar with the plans.

According to the officials and diplomats in Iran, the Islamic Republic’s chain of command is still functioning despite the blows it sustained, and the political ranks have shown ‘no obvious signs of dissent,’ The Times said.

Two Iranian officials cited by the paper said Iran’s intelligence ministry has ordered all senior government officials and military commanders to stay underground due to the possibility that they will be targeted.

The ministry has also ordered officials to stop using electronic communications, including cellphones, and Khamenei himself now communicates with his commanders only via a trusted aide, The Times reported…”  (Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.  They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.  For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.  And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.  Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.  When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.  Let his days be few; and let another take his office.  Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.  Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.  Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.  Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.  Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.  Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.  Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.  As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.  As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.  Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.  But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.  I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.  My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.  I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.  Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy:  That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it.  Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.  Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.  I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.  For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. – Psalm 109:1-31.  See the next five reports.)

Israeli Amb.: Whether Ayatollah Lives or Not ‘Is Irrelevant’, We’re Ensuring They Don’t Get Nukes

June 19, 2025  — Breitbart.com reports: “On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s ‘OutFront,’ Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter stated that Israel will ‘prosecute this war, whether the ayatollah survives or not. We are not going to allow the Iranian regime, under his control, to have a nuclear bomb. Whether he’s alive or not is irrelevant.’ …

Host John Berman then asked if Israel knows where Iran’s supreme leader is.

Leiter responded, ‘I’ll tell you what I do know. I know that, Friday morning, the ayatollah woke up, he looked over his left shoulder for his nuclear scientists and found none. Then he looked over his right shoulder for his generals of the IRGC — those guys who were spreading the terrorism around the world — he didn’t see any of them either. So, he’s kind of alone right now. He appointed a new chief of staff. He lasted about four days. So, the ayatollah may be many stories underground right now in hiding. That’s where he belongs. And we’re going to prosecute this war, whether the ayatollah survives or not. We are not going to allow the Iranian regime, under his control, to have a nuclear bomb. Whether he’s alive or not is irrelevant.’ …”

Defense Minister Katz threatens Khamenei: ‘Such a person cannot be allowed to exist’

June 19, 2025  — Israel National News reports: “Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday morning arrived at the scene of the Iranian missile strike in Holon, where dozens of civilians were injured, including four who sustained serious injuries.

During his visit to the scene, Katz sent a powerful message to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, warning, ‘A dictator like Khamenei cannot be allowed to exist. Khamenei is a modern-day Hitler, diverting his nation’s resources toward the goal of destroying Israel.’

Earlier Thursday morning, Katz slammed Khamenei’s targeting of civilian infrastructure, saying, ‘The cowardly Iranian dictator sits in the depths of his fortified bunker, firing targeted missiles at hospitals and residential buildings in Israel.’

‘These are war crimes of the highest order — Khamenei will answer for his crimes.’…”

Iranian Resistance Leader: ‘Khamenei Must Go’ After U.S. Strikes Regime Nuclear Sites

June 23, 2025  — Breitbart.com reports: “Following U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran’s key nuclear facilities, Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), declared, ‘Now Khamenei must go.’ She added, ‘The Iranian people welcome the end of the war and seek peace and freedom.’

On Sunday, Rajavi delivered a sharp rebuke of the regime, calling for sweeping change and blaming the Supreme Leader for years of costly miscalculations that have pushed the nation into crisis, driven by a now-destroyed nuclear weapons program pursued at the Iranian people’s expense.

‘Khamenei is responsible for an unpatriotic project that, in addition to costing countless lives, has cost the Iranian people at least two trillion dollars — and now, it has all gone up in smoke,’ she said…”

Iranian Opposition Head: People of Iran ‘Demand Freedom,’ Only ‘Regime Change’ Can Deliver It

June 19, 2025  — Breitbart.com reports: “The leader of the opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran told European lawmakers that lasting peace in the Middle East hinges on ‘regime change by the people of Iran and the organized resistance,’ asserting it is up to Iranians — not foreign powers — to topple the Islamic Republic, as Israel intensifies its unprecedented campaign of airstrikes against Tehran.

‘The crisis of overthrow has now engulfed the entire clerical dictatorship — a reality that is visible to all,’ declared Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), during her address to Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday. 

She said Israel’s surprise strike on Friday, which triggered a broader conflict, ‘marks the beginning of a critical new chapter, both in Iran’s internal crisis and in the broader dynamics of the region.’

‘It is essential to emphasize that the central and ongoing conflict — unfolding over the past 44 years since June 20, 1981 — is the struggle of the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance against the ruling religious fascism,’ Rajavi noted.

‘The only viable solution remains the overthrow of this regime by the people of Iran and the Iranian Resistance,’ she added…”

Son of late shah urges Iranians to break with Islamic republic

June 16, 2025  — SpaceWar.com reports: “The son of Iran’s late shah appealed Friday to the country’s security forces to abandon the cleric-run state, voicing hope for toppling the Islamic republic after Israel launched military strikes.

Reza Pahlavi blamed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for having ‘dragged Iran into a war’ with Israel and described the government in Tehran as ‘weak and divided.’

‘It could fall. As I have told my compatriots: Iran is yours and yours to reclaim. I am with you. Stay strong and we will win,’ he said in a statement.

‘I have told the military, police, and security forces: break from the regime. Honor the oath of any honorable serviceman. Join the people.’

‘To the international community: do not throw yet another lifeline to this dying, terrorist regime,’ he said.

Pahlavi was crown prince in Iran’s pro-Western monarchy, which collapsed in 1979 in a mass revolution that quickly brought to power the clerical establishment that declared an Islamic republic…”